Ethanol injection technique for liposomes formulation: An insight into development, influencing factors, challenges and applications

Ethanol injection method is one of the preferred reported techniques used to produce small unilamellar liposomes in a simple and rapid manner. Several parameters were reported to influence the outcome of this method, and modifications were introduced to the technique to optimize the conditions required to produce small homogenous liposomes. This is the first review article to provide a deeper understanding of the ethanol injection method and the introduced modifications. Moreover, the parameters influencing the process such as injection velocity, stirring rate, injection hole diameter, lipid concentration, osmolality/pH/viscosity of the aqueous phase, volume of utilized ethanol and its residual amount, dimensions of reaction vessel and type of drug to be loaded were discussed in the current review. Furthermore, the limitations and pharmaceutical applications of the current method were also discussed.