Recent advances and future prospects of phyto-phospholipid complexation technique for improving pharmacokinetic profile of plant actives

The phyto-phospholipid complexation technique has emerged as one of the leading methods of improving bioavailability of phytopharmaceuticals having poor competency of solubilizing and crossing the biological membranes. Several plant actives in spite having potent in vitro pharmacological activities have failed to demonstrate similar in vivo response. Such plant actives have been made more effective systemically by incorporating them with dietary phospholipids forming new cellular structures which are amphipathic in nature. In the last few years phospholipids have been extensively explored for improved bioavailability and efficacy of plant drugs. Further, it is also much relevant to mention that phospholipids show unique compatibility with biological membranes and have inherent hepatoprotective activity. Different methods have been adopted to formulate phospholipid complexes of plant extractives utilizing varying solvent systems, molar ratios of drug/ phospholipids and different drying techniques. Some methods of formulating such drug-phospholipid complexes have been patented as well. However, the stability of phyto-phospholipid complexes is still a matter of concernwhich needs attention. But still a number of products exploiting this technique are under clinical trials and some of them are now in market. The current review highlights key findings of recent years with our own viewpoints which can give the new directions to this strategy and also includes advancements in the technical aspects of phyto-phospholipid formulations which have been done in the recent past with future challenges. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.