An Overview on Edible Vaccines and Immunization

Edible vaccines offer cost-effective, easily administrable, storable and widely acceptable as bio friendly particularly in developing countries. Oral administration of edible vaccines proves to be promising agents for reducing the incidence of various diseases like hepatitis and diarrhea especially in the developing world, which face the problem of storing and administering vaccines. Edible vaccines are obtained by incorporating a particular gene of interest into the plant, which produces the desirable encoded protein. Edible vaccines are specific to provide mucosal activity along with systemic immunity. Various foods that are used as alternative agents for injectable vaccines include cereals (wheat, rice, corn) fruits (bananas) and vegetables (lettuce, potatoes, tomatoes). Thus, edible vaccines overcome all the problems associated with traditional vaccines and prove to be best substitutes to traditional vaccines.