Lipid-based emulsion system -a subcategory of emulsion technology, has emerged as an enticing option to improve the solubility of the steadily rising water-insoluble candidates. Along with enhancing solubility, additional advantages such as improvement in permeability, protection against pre-systemic metabolism, ease of manufacturing, and easy to scale-up have made lipid-based emulsion technology very popular among academicians and manufacturers. The present article provides a comprehensive review regarding various critical properties of lipid-based emulsion systems, such as microemulsion, nanoemulsion, SMEDDS (self microemulsifying drug delivery system), and SNEDDS (self nanoemulsifying drug delivery system). The present article also explains in detail the similarities and differences between them, the stabilization mechanism, methods of preparation, excipients used to prepare them, and evaluation techniques. Subtle differences between nearly related terminologies such as microemulsion and nanoemulsion, SMEDDS, and SNEDDS are also explained in detail to clarify the basic differences. The present article also gives in-depth information regarding the chemical structure of various lipidic excipients, various possible chemical modifications to modify their inherent properties, and their regulatory status for rational selection.

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: Drug nanocrystals offer an attractive approach for improving the solubility and dissolution rate of poorly soluble drugs which accounts for nearly 40 % newly discovered drug molecules. Both methods for manufacturing drug nanocrystals have high industrial acceptability for being simple and easy to scale which is evident from the number of approved products available in the market. Ability to modify multiple aspects of dosage form like bioavailability, release pattern and dosage form requirement along with flexibility in choosing final dosage form starting from the tablet, capsule, suspension to parenteral one, have made nanocrystal technology one of the very promising and adaptable technology for dosage form design.

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