Plants are the tremendous source for the discovery of new products with medicinal importance in drug development. Today several distinct chemicals derived from plants are important drugs, which are currently used in one or more countries in the world. Secondary metabolites are economically important as drugs, flavor and fragrances, dye and pigments, pesticides, and food additives. Many of the drugs sold today are simple synthetic modifications or copies of the naturally obtained substances. The evolving commercial importance of secondary metabolites has in recent years resulted in a great interest in secondary metabolism, particularly in the possibility of altering the production of bioactive plant metabolites by means of tissue culture technology. Plant cell and tissue culture technologies can be established routinely under sterile conditions from explants, such as plant leaves, stems, roots, and meristems for both the ways for multiplication and extraction of secondary metabolites. In vitro production of secondary metabolite in plant cell suspension cultures has been reported from various medicinal plants, and bioreactors are the key step for their commercial production. Based on this lime light, the present review is aimed to cover phytotherapeutic application and recent advancement for the production of some important plant pharmaceuticals.

Metformin (MTF) improves hyperglycemia primarily by suppressing glucose production by the liver. The objective of our investigation was to evaluate nanoemulsion as a promising carrier for MTF for sustained hypoglycemic effect. The drug was incorporated into oil phase of nanoemulsion, which finally improved biopharmaceutical properties achieved when compared with lipid based systems. Pseudo ternary phase diagrams were prepared by aqueous titration method. Formulations were selected at a difference of 5% v/v of oil from the o/w nanoemulsion region of phase diagrams, and then thermodynamic stability and dispersibility tests were performed. The composition of optimized formulation was hydrogenated castor oil (5% v/v), 30% v/v of surfactant (tween 80), co-surfactant (transcutol) and distilled water (65% v/v) as an aqueous phase. The preparation showed maximum drug release (98.70%), optimal globule size (92.25 nm), lowest polydispersity value (0.172), lesser viscosity (22.124 cps) and infinite dilution capability. The antidiabetic activity of optimized MTF nanoemulsion formulation evaluated by blood glucose estimation showed significant hypoglycemic effect which was comparable to that observed with conventional marketed formulation in experimental diabetic rats. Optimized formulation was subjected to stability studies at different temperature and relative humidity and was found to be stable. No significant variations were observed in the formulation over a period of 3 months at accelerated storage conditions.

These finding powerfully supports that F. indica exert chemopreventive effect by suppressing the tumor burden and restoring the activities of hepatic cancer marker enzymes on NDEA and CCl(4)-induced hepatocarcinogenesis in Wistar rats.

Repaglinide (RPG) is a fast-acting prandial glucose regulator. It acts by stimulating insulin release from pancreatic b-cells. Recurrent dosing of RPG before each meal is burdensome remedy. Hence the plan of the present study was to evaluate nanoemulsion as a hopeful carrier for RPG for persistent hypoglycemic effect. The drug was incorporated into oil phase of nanoemulsion to give improved biopharmaceutical properties as compared to the lipid-based systems. Pseudo ternary phase diagrams were prepared by aqueous titration method. Formulations were selected at a difference of 5% w/w of oil from the o/w nanoemulsion region of phase diagrams. The optimized nanoemulsion formulation constituted sefsol-218 (5% v/v) as an oil phase, 30% v/v of Tween-80 and transcutol as a surfactant and co-surfactant to restrain nanodroplet size and low viscosity and distilled water (65%). In vitro dissolution studies showed higher drug release (98.22%), finest droplet size (76.23 nm), slightest polydispersity value (0.183), least viscosity (21.45 cps) and immeasurable dilution capability from the nanoemulsion as compared with existing oral tablet formulation. The optimized RPG nanoemulsion formulation showed better hypoglycemic effect in comparison to tablet formulation in experimental diabetic rats. No significant variations were also observed in the optimized formulation when subjected to accelerated stability study at different temperature and relative humidity over a period of 3 months.

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