The use of natural excipients to deliver the bioactive agents has been hampered by the synthetic materials. However advantages offered by these natural excipients are their being non-toxic, less expensive and freely available. The performance of the excipients partly determines the quality of the medicines. The traditional concept of the excipients as any component other than the active substance has undergone a substantial evolution from an inert and cheap vehicle to an essential constituent of the formulation. Excipients are any component other than the active substance(s) intentionally added to formulation of a dosage form. This article gives an overview of herbal excipients which are used in conventional dosage forms as well as novel drug delivery systems.

Supercritical fluid technology has recently drawn attention in the field of pharmaceuticals. It is a distinct conception that utilizes the solvent properties of supercritical fluids above their critical temperature and pressure, where they exhibit both liquid-like and gas-like properties, which can enable many pharmaceutical applications. For example, the liquid-like properties provide benefits in extraction processes of organic solvents or impurities, drug solubilization, and polymer plasticization, and the gas-like features facilitate mass transfer processes. It has become a much more versatile and environmentally attractive technology that can handle a variety of complicated problems in pharmaceuticals. This review is focused on different techniques that use supercritical fluids and their opportunities for the pharmaceutical sector.

The aim of this study was to formulate and evaluate gliclazide (GLC) loaded chitosan nanoparticles (NP's). GLC is a hypoglycemic agent, stimulates insulin secretion from functional pancreatic beta-cells and increases the sensitivity of the beta cells to glucose. In the present study GLC loaded chitosan NP's were prepared by salting out of chitosan with sodium citrate. The influence of various formulation factors (stirring speed, drug: polymer ratio) on particle size, drug loading, and encapsulation efficiency were investigated. The particle size analysis was determined by dynamic light scattering technique. The developed NP's showed high drug loading and encapsulation efficiency. FT-IR and DSC studies showed no interaction of GLC with polymers. The release of drug from NP's exhibited over a period of 24 h with an initial burst effect followed by sustained release. The rate and amount of the drug release was decreased as the polymer content increased. The optimum ratio was found to be 1:2.5 with high encapsulation efficiency with sustained drug release. Stability studies revealed that the GLC-loaded NP's were stable for the period of three months.

A novel, simple, sensitive and rapid spectrophotometric method has been developed for simultaneous estimation of ambroxol hydrochloride and levocetirizine dihydrochloride. The method involved solving simultaneous equations based on measurement of absorbance at two wavelengths 242 nm and 231 nm, the γ max of ambroxol hydrochloride and levocetirizine dihydrochloride, respectively. Beer's law was obeyed in the concentration range 10–50 μg/ml and 8–24 μg/ml for ambroxol hydrochloride and levocetirizine dihydrochloride respectively. Results of the method were validated statistically and by recovery studies.

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