Nanomedicine Based Phytoformulation in Disease Diagnosis and Treatment

In the last several decades, numerous investigations have been done for the development of the novel carrier systems for the delivery of phytoconstituents. Several nano-phytomedicines, for instances, nanoparticles, nanocomposites, lipid carriers, phytosomes, nanoemulsions, microcapsules, ethosomes, etc., have been developed to improve effectiveness of phytoconstituents in the management of an array of indications. These investigations are made when scientific reports question the virtue of phytomedicine. Low lipid solubility, poor stability, large size moiety, and undesired metabolism in gut are some of the critical issues of phytomedicine that have been highlighted most. Novel drug delivery systems are gradually being recognized as the most efficient carriers that have ability to overcome safety and efficacy related issues of the phytoactives. In addition, these are helping design therapeutically effective nano-phytomedicines. In addition, disease diagnosis and molecular imaging have become the most significant application of nano-phytomedicine now. Use of these carriers in current preclinical research or clinical practices as a diagnosis tool, magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography, ultrasound, optical imaging and photoacoustic imaging, positron emission tomography, and single photon emission computed tomography, has gained momentum and is now taking a revolutionary shift as potential imaging modalities. Furthermore, they have shown enormous potential in molecular imaging of, drugs permeability and retention through biological membrane, absorption mechanism, their targeted delivery at cellular, tissue and organ level, tumor formation, angiogenesis, mononuclear phagocytic systems, etc. The present chapter highlights the status of the developed nano-phytomedicines, their clinical applications in the disease treatment and diagnosis.