Natural Excipients: A Review

The use of natural excipients to deliver the bioactive agents has been hampered by the synthetic materials. However advantages offered by these natural excipients are their being non-toxic, less expensive and freely available. The performance of the excipients partly determines the quality of the medicines. The traditional concept of the excipients as any component other than the active substance has undergone a substantial evolution from an inert and cheap vehicle to an essential constituent of the formulation. Earlier used natural excipients are carrageenan, thaumatin, lard, shilajit, aerosil, myrobalan, storax. Excipients are any component other than the active substances intentionally added to formulation of a dosage form. Novel drug delivery systems are developed to address the challenges of drug development such as bioavailability, permeability, and poor solubility. Global excipient markets are expected to grow rapidly with the emerging trends in the pharmaceutical industry. The pharmaceutical industry is marketing refinement in the physical structure of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). This article gives an overview of natural excipients which are used in conventional dosage forms as well as novel drug delivery systems.