About Liposomal formulas

Liposomal Formulations: the future of nutraceuticals

Doctor’s Formulas is the leader in the field of finalized nutraceuticals and food supplements. The expertise in the innovation of liposomal products makes Doctors Formulas unique in the fast-growing area of food supplements. The added value of these products is the liposomal technology, which is a meeting point of advances in delivery of active substances with the most safe and effective platform for nutraceuticals. Liposomes are among the best encapsulation and delivery vehicles with many advantages and without limitations for delivery and targeting of the active substances. The innovation and the customers’ specific needs are the driving forces for the development of our products which are in line with the deep knowledge of liposomal technology and the high-quality standards.

Our mission is to bring liposomal innovation to our customers wishing to generate the uniqueness of our value-for-money products with our scientific knowledge dedicated to liposomal technology!

Liposomes in brief

Liposomes are closed spherical-like vehicles consisting of an aqueous core surrounded by one or more concentrically arranged bilayer membranes. These membranes can be composed of natural or synthetic lipid surfactants.

Liposomes can protect the entrapped active ingredient from degradation and change its bio distribution, increase its absorption and consequently its bioavailability.Additional advantages of using liposomes as vesicles / drug delivery systems include their ability to encapsulate hydrophilic molecules (i.e. vitamin C) within the aqueous cavity and solubilize lipophilic compounds within the lipid bilayer.

Poor GI-stability can be overcome by incorporating the active substances in liposomes providing a protective effect towards an enzymatic attack in the GI-tract.Furthermore, liposomes can, at least to some extent, diffuse into the mucus gel layer releasing their payload there, a presystemic metabolism of the active substance on the way between the delivery system and the absorption membrane can be excluded.

The added value of liposomes in food supplements

Pre-uptake metabolism within the GI tract is responsible for the poor oral bioavailability of active substances. As liposomes function as a ‘lipid shield’, protecting encapsulated active substances from oxidation, degradation, enzymatic attack, there is an increasing interest in utilizing them as a tool for overcoming active substance’s destabilization. The bio distribution of a liposome depends on its physicochemical properties. Factors increasing particle uptake have been extensively described in the literature, including size, lamellarity, size distribution and surface charge. The positively charged liposomes initially interact with cell membranes via adsorption and are subsequently internalized by fusion and endocytosis. For this reason, liposomes increase the bioavailability of the encapsulated active substance in comparison to free and other conventional pharmaceutical carriers (i.e. tablets, capsules, oral suspensions etc).

The innovation of Doctor’s Formulas liposomal products

As mentioned above, liposomes can be designed to optimize the bioavailability of the food supplements. The knowledge of the relationship between their physicochemical characteristics (i.e. size, size distribution and surface charge) is mandatory to reach this goal. The physicochemical characteristics of liposomal nutraceutical of Doctor’s Formulas were investigated in collaboration with Academia. These studies demonstrated that the colloidal particles/liposomes of formulations are in the micrometer range (around 400nm) with special/required size distribution with respect to the nature of the product particles and these physicochemical characteristics are the same in different pHs of GI. The last observation is important evidence that liposomes are stable and effective in different conditions of GI. This investigation is published in the peer-reviewed journal: “Advanced Science, Engineering and Medicine”

Keypoints

• Doctor’s formulas dietary supplements contain liposomes, as innovative carriers for food supplements, active substances and vitamins.

• The liposomal dosage forms ensure 8 times greater absorption and bioavailability of the active substances due to the added value of the liposomal carrier.

• Liposomal mixture: complex of phosphatidylcholines (from non-genetically modified sunflower lecithin vegetable oil) with glycerin.