Natural Products Formulation and Delivery

Section Lead: Dr Touraj Ehtezazi

Email: T.Ehtezazi@ljmu.ac.uk

The section focuses on formulation and delivery of natural products (as drugs or as cosmetic products), including the use of nanoparticles for drug delivery of natural products.

We are also investigating natural products in the formulation of drug delivery systems. As an example, three-dimensional (3D) printing (3DP) has made its way into pharmaceutical sciences (e.g., Spritam (Aprecia Pharmaceuticals) tablet is manufactured by 3DP and the formulation has been approved by the FDA) and formulation scientists all around the world are investigating manufacturing of novel pharmaceutical dosage forms by 3DP. Selection of suitable material plays a key role in developing successful formulations. At the CNPD, natural products such as chitosan are investigated in the formulation of fast dissolving oral films (FDFs). It is expected that 3DP of FDFs will be a game changer in the production of pharmaceutical FDFs.

Furthermore, we are investigating the application of 3DP in developing novel films for wound dressing and, again, natural products are investigated to achieve films that accelerate the healing process while avoiding the development of infections at the same time. We employ fused deposition modelling (FDM) to develop the pharmaceutical formulations. In addition, the electrospinning technique is currently investigated to produce desired natural ingredients for formulating 3DP FDFs and wound dressing films.