European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

A REVIEW ON MUCOADHESIVE VAGINAL TABLETS

Amatullah Taskin*

ABSTRACT

Conventional drug delivery system (CDDS) is one of the classical methods for the delivery of drug into the body. Despite of benefits and ease associated with these systems, there are certain serious drawbacks such as poor absorption, first pass metabolism, bitter taste, patient compliance, dosing frequency, dose dumping, toxicity, interaction and many more. That is why exploration of other routes for delivery of medication have been an important topic of discussion. Earlier the use of vaginal route was only restricted to the delivery of contraceptives and steroids. Apart from these traditional purposes, this route has been exploited for delivering a wide variety of drugs including antimicrobials, antifungals, contraceptives, anticancer drugs and labor inducing drugs. Among various explored routes, one of the finest, effective and non-invasive routes is Vaginal route. The large surface area, rich vascularization, high permeability of vaginal epithelium, rich blood supply, avoidance of first pass metabolism, access to the lymphatic system and potential for drug delivery throughout the female reproductive tract makes the vagina a desirable route of administration. A wide range of dosage forms have been designed for this route which allows for both immediate and sustained drug delivery with ease of administration. This review highlights the benefits and limitations of intravaginal delivery, factors affecting vaginal absorption and distribution, and the novel approaches for better drug delivery through vagina. The main aim of this review is to mention the importance and effectiveness of mucoadhesive vaginal tablets over other available dosage form and to bring up the growth and expansion in this field to improve the delivery of drugs via this route.

Keywords: Vaginal drug delivery; mucoadhesion; mucoadhesive vaginal tablets; mucoadhesive polymers; novel approaches.