الفهرس 
general IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Buccal drug delivery has gained significant attention and momentum since it offers remarkable advantages such as: Bypassing degradation in the harsh environment of the gastrointestinal tract and extensive first pass metabolism thus increasing bioavailability as compared to orally administered drugs, ease of administration and termination of therapy whenever required, improved patient compliance, a relatively rapid onset of action can be achieved relative to the oral route, permit localization of the drug to the oral cavity and thus targeting different oral cavity conditions with remarkable reduction of the drug dose thereby decreasing dose related side effects. In spite of all the above mentioned advantages there are some challenges facing buccal drug delivery depending on whether local or systemic action is required. For local action, the rapid elimination of drugs due to the flushing action of saliva or the ingestion of food stuffs may lead to the requirement of frequent dosing as well as the non-uniform distribution of drugs within saliva on release from a solid or semisolid delivery system which could mean that some areas of the oral cavity may not receive effective levels. For systemic delivery, the relative impermeability of oral cavity mucosa with regard to drug absorption especially for large hydrophilic biopharmaceuticals is a major concern. For both local and systemic action, patient acceptability in terms of taste, irritancy and ”mouth feel” is an issue. With respect to diseases caused by microorganisms, such as most oral diseases the increasing resistance in many common pathogens to currently used therapeutic agents, such as antibiotics and antiviral agents, has led to renewed interest in the discovery of novel anti-infective compounds. As there are approximately 500000 plant species occurring worldwide, of which only 1% has been phytochemically investigated, there is a great potential for discovering novel bioactive compounds from these sources.