ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to develop a novel silymarin-loaded solid lipid nanoparticle system with enhanced bioavailability and with an ability to provide excellent hepatic protection for poorly water-soluble drugs. The variety of novel herbal formulations like polymeric nanoparticles, nanocapsules, liposomes, phytosomes, nanoemulsions, microsphere, transferosomes, and ethosomes has been reported using bioactive and plant extracts. The novel formulations are reported to have remarkable advantages over conventional formulations of plant actives and extracts which include enhancement of solubility, bioavailability, and protection from toxicity, enhancement of stability, improved tissue macrophages distribution, sustained delivery, and protection from physical and chemical degradation. The use of nanotechnology for treatment, identification, monitoring, and managing biological systems has recently been called nanomedicine. In the herbal formulation research, incorporating the nano-based formulation has a great number of advantages for phytomedicine, including improvement of solubility and bioavailability, safeguard from toxicity, enhancement of pharmacological activity, improvement of stability, and increase in tissue macrophages distribution, sustained delivery, and protection from physical and chemical degradation.
