SOLID SELF MICROEMULSIFYING DRUG DELIVIRY SYSTEM: A REVIEW

Oral route still remains the favorite route of drug administration in many diseases and till today it is the first way investigated in the development of new dosage forms. The major problem in oral drug formulations is low and erratic bioavailability, which mainly results from poor aqueous solubility. As a consequence of modern drug discovery techniques, there has been a steady increase in the number of new pharmacologically active lipophilic compounds that are poorly water soluble. It is a great challenge for pharmaceutical scientist to convert those molecules into orally administered formulation with sufficient bioavailability. Among the several approaches to improve oral bioavailability of these molecules, self-micron emulsifying drug delivery system (SMEDDS) is one of the approaches usually used to improve the bioavailability of lipophillic drugs. However, conventional SMEDDS are mostly prepared in a liquid form, which can have some disadvantages. Hence, solid SMEDDS (S-SMEDDS) prepared by solidification of liquid/semisolid self-micron emulsifying ingredients into powders, have gained popularity. This article gives an overview of the recent advances in the study of S-SMEDDS, especially the related solidification techniques and the development of solid self-micron emulsifying dosage forms. Finally, the existing problems and the possible future research directions in this field are pointed out. Thus S-SMEDDS could be used as an effective oral solid dosage form to improve the bioavailability of hydrophobic drugs.Keywords: solid SMEDDS, self emulsification, solubility enhancement, bioavailability, lipophili