CHOCOLATE DRUG DELIVERY SYSTEM: A REVIEW

One of the most popular food all over the world is chocolate and it has highly nutritious energy, fast metabolism and good digestibility. Nowadays, most important trend is healthy foods. Chocolate is derived from cocoa beans, central to the fruit of cocoa tree, theobroma cacao. Chocolate characters not only originate in flavor precursors present in cocoa beans, but are generated during post-harvest treatments and transformed into desirable odor notes in the manufacturing processes. In its many forms chocolate may be consumed as a beverage, as a syrup, as a flavoring, as a coating. When consumed as part of a balanced and varied diet, chocolate can be both a source of nutrients as well as pleasure, and can be considered as being part of a healthful, wholesome diet. Medicated chocolate formulation is widely used for pediatric administration and it increases the patient’s desire to consume the medication. Medicated chocolate is prepared by using chocolate base and drug is incorporated to prepared chocolate base. The medicated chocolate can be evaluated for its appearance, moisture content, viscosity, blooming test, drug content determination and in vitro drug release. This review paper focused on health importance and usage of medicated as well as conventional chocolates.