Emerging and advanced drug delivery systems for improved biopharmaceutical attributes of gallic acid: A review

Nearly 40–70% of the drug molecules in clinical drug development suffer from bioavailability issues attributed to poor solubility and absorption. Evidence reports the benefits of nano-technology-based strategies in enhancing pharmacokinetic properties associated with the drugs. Gallic acid (GA) belongs to the phenolic acid class of the polyphenols. GA occurs naturally in a wide variety of vegetables, fruits, coffee, tea, and wine. It has numerous beneficial pharmacological properties such as antioxidant, anticancer, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory beneficial for many disorders. But its use is limited due to its poor pharmacokinetic properties (less absorption, low bioavailability, high metabolism, and clearance rate).Formulation development is thereby a broadly applied approach to overcome these biopharmaceutical limitations of the drug. Literature survey through electronic databases, such as Science Direct, PubMed, Google Scholar, and Scopus by using the keywords such as ‘Gallic acid’, ‘Gallic acid nanocarriers’, ‘pharmacological activities’ and ‘anticancer activity’. Different formulation development strategies used are known to overcome the poor pharmacokinetic properties of Gallic acid. Anticancer activity along with the mechanism involved provides evidence of the pharmacological potency of Gallic acid. Application of nanotechnology to drug delivery for achieving site-specific targeting, increased retention, stability and enhanced ability for delivering both hydrophilic as well as hydrophobic drugs emerged out to be a promising technique for overcoming the pharmacokinetic limitations of Gallic acid.