Ionic Liquids for Therapeutic and Drug Delivery Applications.

BACKGROUND Ionic liquids (ILs) are ionic compounds with highly tunable and remarkable properties which make them an important candidate in multitude of domains such as extraction, synthesis, analytics, catalysis, biotechnology, therapeutics as well as pharmaceutical sciences.

OBJECTIVE This review systematically highlights the classification, properties and toxicity of ionic liquids. It is focused on exploring the biological activity of ionic liquids which includes antimicrobial and anticancer property along with emphasis on the concept of active pharmaceutical ingredient-ionic liquids (API-ILs) for explaining the emulsifier and solubility enhancement property of ILs. An elaborative discussion on the application of ILs for the development of oral, transdermal and topical drug delivery systems has also been presented with suitable literature support.

CONCLUSION Ionic liquids possess exceptional potential in field of medicine, biology and chemistry.