Pharmaceutical Excipients of Marine and Animal origin: A Review

Abstract

This article gives an overview of natural, marine and animal derived compounds which are used as excipients in pharmaceutical preparations. Pharmaceutical excipients are inactive substances, used to formulate dosage forms and play a multi role in pharmaceutical formulations. The use of marine and animal derived excipients to deliver active pharmaceutical ingredients have been limited by the development of synthetic materials. However, advantages offered by these excipients are being cheap, freely available and biocompatible. Marine polysaccharides are abundant in sea and have a low extraction cost. Marine and animal excipients have a diverse pharmaceutical application such as fillers, binders, film coating agents, colorants, flavoring agents, encapsulating agents and lubricating agents. Even though they produce diverse pharmaceutical application, their use is limited due to consumer's religious beliefs and some toxicity problems.