Herbal Excipients- Significance of Substances of Natural Origin as Excipients

As in every field there is a transformation to improve the performance and satisfy the demand of consumer, in pharmaceutical word, need of “Excipient” have been changed from inert and cheap substance which forms bulk of formulation to a material which has potential to be placed in formulation as it accomplished the desirable objective of treatment. The Herbal or natural excipients have a great advantage over their synthetic analogues as these are non-toxic, less expensive and freely available. Due to advances in drug delivery technology, currently, excipients are included in novel dosage forms to fulfill specific functions and in some cases, they directly or indirectly influence the extent and/or rate of drug release and drug absorption. Recent trends towards use of plant based and natural products demand the replacement of synthetic additives with natural ones. Today, the whole world is increasingly interested in natural drugs and excipients, hence natural materials have many advantages over synthetic ones as they are chemically inert, nontoxic, less expensive , biodegradable, improve the shelf life of the product and widely available. This article gives an overview of natural excipients which are used in conventional dosage forms as well as novel drug delivery systems.