A Novel Approach to Herbal Medicine: Enhancing Drug Delivery with Self-Emulsifying Formulations

Generally, the desired route for administration of drug is the oral route as per formulators when compared to other methods. But oral administration presents a significant challenge due to poor aqueous solubility, which often results in low and unpredictable bioavailability. Around 40% of new active substances face this issue, as their bioavailability is low and for modern drug delivery systems these drugs are becoming major challenge. However, recently herbs or herbal formulations are gaining lots of importance majorly due to their safety profile, as they produce few toxic metabolites. In spite of benefits provided by herbal medicines, they also have certain limitations like, inadequate solubility and ultimately it will have an impact on bioavailability. A potential solution to this challenge involves utilizing various advanced drug delivery technologies, among them a promising approach known as the self-emulsifying drug delivery system has emerged as a key development. This technique is employed mainly for drugs with poor solubility and bioavailability issues. It’s composed of isotropic blend of oil, surfactant, co-surfactant and drug. This mixture forms an oil-in-water nano or microemulsion in gastric medium with gentle mixing. This review article mainly emphasizes on formulation, characterization and enhancement of bioavailability of various herbal drugs used in treating different diseases through SEDDS.