Lipidic nanocarriers of plant bioactives as potential drug delivery and targeting systems for effective cancer treatment

All over the world, cancer is the leading cause of death. On the other hand, the efficacy of existing mainstream cancer treatments is unsatisfactory for a range of tumors. To begin with, most cancer treatments are non-specific, meaning they impact both cancer cells and their non-cancerous counterparts. Furthermore, due to challenges in administration, current anticancer medications cause several side effects, non-compliance, and patient inconvenience. Lipidic nanocarriers of plant bioactives are biocompatible, biodegradable nanocarriers composed of lipids, surfactants, and co-surfactants and have been proven for their enhanced therapeutic potential. Lipidic nanocarriers are notably helpful in cancer therapies. Lipidic nanocarriers drugs' harmful side effects while increasing their anticancer potency. The lipidic nanocarriers, namely liposomes, solid lipid nanoparticles, Nanostructured lipid carriers, drug-lipid conjugates, and lipidic nanoemulsion, are reported with herbal bioactives with anticancer activities. The herbal bioactive loaded lipidic nanocarriers are commonly characterized for particle size, zeta potential, entrapment efficiency, and drug release studies. Multiple researchers have developed phytochemical-loaded lipidic nanoparticles; some are loaded with vincristine, etoposide, curcumin, paclitaxel, rutin, quercetin, etc., camptothecin, anthracyclines, resveratrol, genistein, and capsaicin. The present review summarizes various lipidic nanocarriers loaded with herbal bioactive moieties studied for the antitumor, anticancer effect, and improved therapeutic response and bioavailability.