Ellagic acid, a polyphenolic compound derived from many dietary foods possesses diverse pharmacologic effects including anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anticancer and antihypertensive activities in several oxidation-linked chronic diseases. Animal studies have shown that ellagic acid is safe and effective in many ailments but exhibit poor oral bioavailability. Different factors contributing to low bioavailability include poor absorption, metabolism in GIT, rapid distribution and elimination. Although, poor absorption and low systemic bioavailability of ellagic acid limit its clinical utilization, some of the methods for its use can be approached to enhance the absorption and achieve a therapeutic level of ellagic acid. These approaches involve, first, the use of amorphous solid dispersions (ASD) for improvement of solubility of ellagic acid; second, utilization of in situ gelling systems of ellagic acid; third, ellagic acid incorporated peptide microtubes; fourth, the use of liposomal curcumin; fifth, the use of niosomes of curcumin; and sixth, cyclodextrin inclusion complex of ellagic acid. Improved absorption or dissolution, bioavailability and therapeutic efficacy of ellagic acid after application of abovementioned approaches against various human diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and neurological diseases has been documented. This indicates that in the near future bioavailability enhancement of ellagic acid is expected to boost this promising natural product to the lead of therapeutic agents for treatment of human disease.
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