Advantages of nanotechnology-based Chinese herb drugs on biological activities

Abstract

A number of new nanotechnology-based Chinese herb drugs have been developed that have efficient biopharmaceutical properties and desirable target characteristics. This offers several alternatives for medical applications. Nanoparticles of Chinese herb drugs possess many benefits, such as improving component solubility, enhancement of bioavailability, increasing absorbency of the organism, reducing medicinal herb doses, and achieving steady-state therapeutic levels of drugs over an extended period compared with traditional Chinese herb drug preparations. There are two basic techniques, 'bottom up' or 'top down', to prepare Chinese herb nanoparticles. Furthermore, specific surface modifications and new design strategies of Chinese herb drug nanoparticles are created to profit clinical applications. This review presents recent advances in nanotechnology-based Chinese herb drugs.