New therapeutic potentials of nanosized phytomedicine

In the last decade, the attention on phytomedicine has been increased due to their safe toxicological profiles compared to allopathic drugs. Despite promising biological activities of plant raw extracts, their poor solubility, poor stability, short biological half-life, and rapid elimination hinder their clinical application. Recently, nanotechnology offered the possibility to develop delivery systems particularly adapted to improve the therapeutic efficacy of natural bioactive molecules. Indeed, nanocarriers have drawn increasing attention as potential alternatives for traditional formulation approaches, reducing toxicity, increasing the bioavailability and permitting a site-specific targeted delivery. This review focuses on advances in nanocarrier-mediated drug delivery of phytochemical bioactive molecules in the field of medical research, analyzing the chemical and structural characteristics of fully developed vectors such as Cyclodextrins, Human serum albumin, Micelles, Nanospheres, Nanocapsules, Solid lipid nanoparticles and Liposomes. To this end, recent literature on successfully interactions between the cited nanocarriers and widely used phytodrugs is described. Curcumin, Resveratrol, Emodin, Aloe-emodin, Ellagitannin and Ellagic acid were chosen as example.