RECENT DEVELOPMENTS ON NATURAL TRANSDERMAL PENETRATION ENHANCERS

The drug delivery by oral route is so far most convenient and accepted route of drug delivery but now a days considerable interest has been increased in delivery of drugs through skin to the systemic circulation and for local effect. However, the outer most layer of the human skin, stratum corneum; possess the formidable barrier to drug penetration thereby reducing bio-availability. Most of the drugs do not have an ability to penetrate the stratum corneum. Owing to the side effects of chemical penetration enhancers interest has been aroused among researchers to find out natural sources as penetration enhancers to improve the bio-availability of drugs so that they can be delivered through skin. The current review aims to screen various natural sources of penetration enhancers for transdermal delivery of different drugs as they have minimum chances of side effects and have improved efficacy compared to chemical enhancers. Various natural derivatives have been proposed that could show potential penetration enhancing capacity with varied mechanism of penetration. Though a large number of natural sources of penetration enhancers have been discussed but still a lot of studies and research need to be done to explore the sources of natural penetration enhancers for effective delivery of drug via transdermal route.