International Journal of Nanomedicine (Oct 2021)

Phytosomes as Innovative Delivery Systems for Phytochemicals: A Comprehensive Review of Literature

  • Barani M,
  • Sangiovanni E,
  • Angarano M,
  • Rajizadeh MA,
  • Mehrabani M,
  • Piazza S,
  • Gangadharappa HV,
  • Pardakhty A,
  • Mehrbani M,
  • Dell’Agli M,
  • Nematollahi MH

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 16
pp. 6983 – 7022

Abstract

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Mahmood Barani,1 Enrico Sangiovanni,2 Marco Angarano,2 Mohammad Amin Rajizadeh,3 Mehrnaz Mehrabani,4 Stefano Piazza,2 Hosahalli Veerabhadrappa Gangadharappa,5 Abbas Pardakhty,6 Mehrzad Mehrbani,7 Mario Dell’Agli,2 Mohammad Hadi Nematollahi8 1Medical Mycology and Bacteriology Research Center, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, 76169-13555, Iran; 2Department of Pharmacological and Biomolecular Sciences, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, 20133, Italy; 3Student Research Committee, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran; 4Physiology Research Center, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran; 5Department of Pharmaceutics, JSS College of Pharmacy, JSS Academy of Higher Education and Research, Mysuru, India; 6Pharmaceutics Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmacology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran; 7Department of Traditional Medicine, Faculty of Traditional Medicine, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran; 8Herbal and Traditional Medicines Research Center, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, IranCorrespondence: Mario Dell’AgliDepartment of Pharmacological and Biomolecular Sciences, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Balzaretti 9, Milan, 20133, ItalyEmail [email protected] Hadi NematollahiDepartment of Clinical Biochemistry, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, IranEmail [email protected]: Nowadays, medicinal herbs and their phytochemicals have emerged as a great therapeutic option for many disorders. However, poor bioavailability and selectivity might limit their clinical application. Therefore, bioavailability is considered a notable challenge to improve bio-efficacy in transporting dietary phytochemicals. Different methods have been proposed for generating effective carrier systems to enhance the bioavailability of phytochemicals. Among them, nano-vesicles have been introduced as promising candidates for the delivery of insoluble phytochemicals. Due to the easy preparation of the bilayer vesicles and their adaptability, they have been widely used and approved by the scientific literature. The first part of the review is focused on introducing phytosome technology as well as its applications, with emphasis on principles of formulations and characterization. The second part provides a wide overview of biological activities of commercial and non-commercial phytosomes, divided by systems and related pathologies. These results confirm the greater effectiveness of phytosomes, both in terms of biological activity or reduced dosage, highlighting curcumin and silymarin as the most formulated compounds. Finally, we describe the promising clinical and experimental findings regarding the applications of phytosomes. The conclusion of this study encourages the researchers to transfer their knowledge from laboratories to market, for a further development of these products.Keywords: phytochemical, nanomedicine, phytosome, delivery, vesicle, disease

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