Colorectal Cancer Management by Herbal Drug-Based Nanocarriers: An Overview

Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer in the world, affecting both men and women, and it is one of the leading causes of cancer related deaths worldwide. Current treatment modalities employed for colorectal cancer management have their own share of drawbacks, such as toxicity due to nonspecific action and chemoresistance that may develop during treatment. The quest and pursuit for newer drugs which can overcome these drawbacks has led to extensive research on plant derived phytoconstituents. Herbal molecules are known to have promising therapeutic efficacy and less toxicity as compared to the current chemotherapeutic drugs of allopathic regimen. However most of these herbal molecules have low bioavailability as a result their therapeutic efficacy gets compromised. Integration of modern delivery approaches with these herbal molecules and presenting them in the form of nanocarriers will help alleviate these drawbacks. This review describes herbal drugs that have potential for treatment of colorectal cancer and nanotechnology strategies widely investigated for the delivery of these herbal molecules. Targeted delivery methods include use of such components as polymeric nanoparticles, liposomes, dendrimers, magnetic nanoparticles, solid lipid nanoparticles, and nanoemulsions. The paper also discusses in detail the formulation aspects of herbal nanocarriers, their design development, and preclinical assessment.