Ethosomes: Novel Vesicular Carriers for Effective Transdermal Delivery of Natural Therapeutics

Abstract: The topical delivery, being the most reliable route for drug administration, offers multiple advantages. The conventional topical dosage forms deliver a relatively higher amount of drug to achieve therapeutic action triggering hypersensitivity reactions accompanied by greasiness and staining issues. The advent of transdermal nanocarriers has waived off some of these limitations and assisted in achieving enhanced therapeutic efficacy with sustained release and minimal/no instances of systemic toxicity. The ethosome, one of the novel lipid carrier systems, has eased the administration of many hydrophilic and lipophilic drugs through the stratum corneum. It is a non-invasive drug carrier consisting of 45% ethanol, phospholipids, and non-ionic surfactants. The discovery of ethosomal technology has proved to be fruitful in delivering drugs with a wide range of polarity and other physicochemical parameters across skin. In this review, the ethosomal system has been explored for the delivery of complex phytoconstituents across the skin along with the key building material of ethosomes, associated mechanism of drug delivery, recent developments in ethosomes as a drug carrier, reported ethosomal formulations encapsulating various plant metabolites, conducted clinical trials and available ethosomal formulations for the delivery of phytocomponents across stratum corneum.