Improvement in Bioavailability of Class-iii Drug: Phytolipid Delivery System

Over the past century, phytochemical and phyto pharmacological sciences established the compositions that are biological active and health promoting. Most of the biologically active constituents of plants are polar or water soluble molecules. However, water soluble phyto-constituents (like flavonoids, tannins, terpenoids, etc.) are poorly absorbed either due to their large molecular size which cannot absorb by passive diffusion, or due to their poor lipid solubility; severely limiting their ability to pass across the lipid-rich biological membranes, resulting poor bioavailability. These types of drugs are then classified into biopharmaceutical classification system classes: high solubility/low permeability (Class III). It has been observed that complexation with certain other clinically useful nutrients substantially improves the bioavailability of such extracts and their individual constituents. The nutrients so helpful for enhancing the absorption are the phospholipids. Phytosome is a patented technology developed by a leading manufacturer of drugs and nutraceuticals, to incorporate standardized plant extracts or water soluble phyto-constituents into phospholipids to produce lipid compatible molecular complexes, called as phytosomes and so vastly improve their absorption and bioavailability. Goel Institute of Pharmacy and Sciences, Lucknow, U.P., India. Email: [email protected]