NANOSUSPENSIONS: A SOLUBILITY ENHANCEMENT TECHNIQUE FOR POORLY WATER SOLUBLE DRUGS

Solubility enhancement is one of the important parameters considered during formulation and development of drugs with poor aqueous solubility. It is the characteristic physical property referring to the ability of a given solute to dissolve in the solvent. Various techniques are available for enhancement of solubility of these poorly water soluble drugs, amongst which nanosuspensions have emerged as promising strategy because of their versatile features and unique advantages. Nanosuspensions are part of nanotechnology and have been used as a universal formulation approach to increase the therapeutic performance of hydrophobic drugs in any route of administration. A pharmaceutical nanosuspension is defined as very fine, colloidal, biphasic, dispersed solid drug particles in an aqueous vehicle, size below 1 micrometre, without any matrix material and stabilized by use of surfactants and polymers. The present article describes the properties, methods of preparation, formulation consideration, evaluation parameters and applications of nanosuspensions.