Background: The combination of nanotechnology with herbal medicine opens up exciting perspectives for dealing with the disadvantages of phytoconstituents. Being of high medicinal importance, phytoconstituents are characterized by poor water solubility, metabolic instability, low membrane permeability, and gastrointestinal breakdown.
Purpose: To summarize and discuss recent advancements in nanoengineered delivery systems for herbal medicines, paying special attention to their capabilities to improve solubility, stability, bioavailability, targeting, and therapeutic efficacy of phytoconstituents as well as the problems of standardization and safety of herbal nanomedicines.
Methods: A narrative review was performed using peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and guidelines available within the period from 2000 till 2026, focusing on recent achievements in this area. Relevant literature was identified through PubMed, ScienceDirect, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar databases as well as guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO), the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the European Medicines Agency (EMA), and the Ministry of AYUSH. Vesicular, lipidic, polymeric, metallic, emulsion-based, and green-synthesized nanoparticles, standardization and nanotoxicology, and computational approaches were considered.
Results: Phytosomes, deformable vesicles, lipid nanoparticles, and self-nanoemulsifying systems have been reported to increase delivery of flavonoids, curcuminoids, and terpenoids with reported bioavailability gains of several-fold in individual mostly preclinical studies. Possibilities of targeted and multifunctional delivery of nanoparticles synthesized with green methods and chromatographic fingerprinting, marker standardization, DNA barcoding, artificial intelligence, and network pharmacology approaches were discussed.
Conclusion: Green extraction, nanoengineering, standardization, safety evaluation, and computational approaches may help in developing safe and effective next-generation herbal nanomedicines.
Ashutosh Rana and Ravikant Gupta. Connecting Phytoscience and Nanoengineering: Vesicular, Polymeric, and Green-Synthesized Nanocarriers Revolutionizing Next-Generation Herbal Drug Technologies.
. 2026, 14, 100-121