Biodegradable polymers in herbal formulations

Abstract

The development of herbal formulations with biodegradable polymers has developed into a potentially useful method of improving the pharmacodynamic potency, bioavailability and patient compliance of herbal medicines (1). Herbal drugs find wide applications in both traditional and contemporary healthcare systems, but present many problems that include poor solubility, instability, and low absorption, and uncontrolled-release (13). Biodegradable polymers provide a renewable and biocompatible system to overcome these drawbacks, and confer release control, targeting and enhanced stability of biologically active phytoconstituents (19). This review article has addressed the taxonomies of biodegradable polymers, both natural (chitosan, alginate, starch, gelatin) and synthetic (poly(lactic acid), poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid), polycaprolactone) and their vuses in novel herb delivery systems using nanoparticles, microspheres, hydrogels, and scaffolds (22). In addition, the review discusses recent developments, current knowledge, constraints, regulations and future of the field of herbal therapeutics based on polymers. The end goal is to give an extensive account of the possibility of the biodegradable polymers in the field of delivering a wide gap between conventional herbal drugs as compared to present-day innovations in the technological sectors in pharmaceuticals that make a huge difference concerning innovation in drug delivery science.