Buccal Drug Delivery: Past, Present and Future – A Review

The major hindrance for the absorption of a drug taken orally is extensive first pass metabolism or stability problems within the GI environment like instability in gastric pH and complexation with mucosal membrane. These obstacles can be overcome by altering the route of administration as parenteral, transdermal or trasmucosal. Among these trasmucosal has the advantage of ease of administration, patient compliance and are economic too. The mucosa of the buccal cavity is the most easily accessible transmuocosal site. Buccal transmucosal delivery helps to bypass first- pass metabolism by allowing direct access to the systemic circulation through the internal jugular vein. The buccal transmucosal route has been researched for a wide variety of drugs. Several methodologies have been considered so far, to design and manipulate the release properties towards the invention of buccal mucosal delivery systems. This article aims at reviewing the numerous techniques that has been designed till date for optimizing buccal transmucosal drug delivery. Keywords: complexation; parenteral; transdermal; trasmucosal