A review on self emulsifying drug delivery system: promising approach to enhance bioavailability

Abstract

Among the approaches to improve the oral bioavailability of the molecules, the use of self-emulsifying drug delivery system has been shown to be reasonably successful in improving the oral bioavailability of poorly water soluble and lipophilic drugs. SEDDS is a novel and versatile approach for overcoming the formulation difficulties with poor aqueous solubility and low bioavailability. SEDDS are the isotropic mixture of oils and surfactants even sometimes containing cosolvents, which emulsify to produce fine oil-in-water emulsions upon gentle agitation. These systems rapidly disperse in g.i.t yielding micro or nano emulsions containing the solubilised drug with droplet size 100-300 nm. For lipophilic drugs which have dissolution rate limited absorption, SEDDS may be promising strategy to improve rate and extent of oral absorption. This review article gives an overview of self emulsifying drug delivery system and also explains how SEDDS can improves the solubility and bioavailability of the poorly soluble drug.

Key words: Lipid based drug delivery system, self emulsifying drug delivery system, SEDDS, bioavailability.