Pal et al Journal of Drug Delivery & Therapeutics; 2014, 4(2), 47-51 47 © 2011, JDDT. All Rights Reserved ISSN: 2250-1177 CODEN (USA): JDDTAO Available online at http://jddtonline.info RESEARCH ARTICLE FORMULATION AND EVALUATION OF NUTRACEUTICAL TABLET USING HERBAL DRUGS BY DIRECT COMPRESSION METHOD Upendra Nagaich 1 , *Ashok Kumar Pal 2 , Charu Bharti 2 , Neha Gulati 2 1 Department of Pharmaceutics, Amity Institute of Pharmacy, Amity University, Noida [Uttar Pradesh] India 2 Department of Pharmaceutics, School of Pharmacy, Bharat Institute of Technology, Partapur By Pass Road, Meerut- 250103 [Uttar Pradesh] *Corresponding Author’s Email: apal11595@gmail.com , 08791575261 INTRODUCTION Oral route has been one of the most popular routes of drug delivery due to its ease of administration, patience compliance, least sterility constraints and flexible design of dosage forms.Tablets are defined as unit dose, temper evident solid preparations containing one or more active ingredients. Conventional drug delivery systems like tablets and capsules often dissolve rapidly in the gastrointestinal tract for absorption into the bloodstream give rise to inordinately high drug concentrations in plasma 1 . The concept of making utility of food as health promoting factor beyond its nutritional value is gaining acceptance with in public arena and among scientific community. Nutraceuticals contain health- supporting ingredients or natural components that have an ability health benefit for the body. 2 A „nutraceutical‟ is a product isolated or purified from foods that is generally sold in medicinal forms not usually connected with food. A nutraceutical is bearing to have a physiological benefit or give protection against chronic disease. Term coined by Dr. Stephen L De Felice, Founder and Chairman of the Foundation for Innovation in Medicine, New Jersey, USA. Nutraceuticals sometimes referred as “functional foods”, have caused heated debate because they change the traditional dividing line between food, and medicine. 3 A nutraceutical is “any non-toxic food component that has scientifically proven health benefits, including disease treatment or prevention.” The functional component of the food must be standardized in the nutraceutical product and generate under good manufacturing practices (GMPs). 4 Increased public demand, trends in demography, socio-economic scenario. More researches and studies, nearly two thirds of the world‟s 6.1 billion people rely on the healing power of plant based materials for many reasons- availability, affordability, safety or their belief in traditional affordability, safety or their belief in traditional cures Medical benefits of food have been investigated for thousands of years. Modern nutraceutical industry began to develop in Japan during the 1980s. Various benefits of nutraceuticals are may help us live longer, may increase the health asses of our diet, help us to abstain particular medical condition, it have a psychological advantage from doing something for oneself, and may be sensed to be more "natural" than traditional medicine and less likely to produce unpleasant side-effects. 3, 5 The nutraceuticals normally contains required amount of lipids, protein, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals and other necessary nutrients depending upon their emphases. Nutraceuticals in the market contains both traditional foods and non-traditional. When a supplement tablet is ingested, the body must digest and absorb the nutrients. Nutraceutical may include a whole area of products like isolated nutrients, dietary supplements, herbal products and other processed foods. 5 The growing disapproval among the patients about the synthetic therapeutic agents and affect about their toxicological profile gave birth to the “Dietary Supplements Health and Education Act” (DSHEA) in USA in 1994. 5, 6 The concept behind the mode of action of nutraceutical dosage form is to provide functional benefits by enhancing the supply of natural building blocks. It works in to two ways that is to minimize diseases sign or to improve body performance. 2, 3 Clove consists of dried flower buds of Eugenia caryophyllus, family Myrtraceae. The cloves on drying become perfectly crimson or brownish-black in colour. Clove is used as a dental analgesic, carminative, stimulant, flavouring agent an aromatic and antiseptic. Cinnamon consist of dried inner bark of shoots of coppiced trees of Cinnamon zeylancium Nees. Bark is ABSTRACT Aim: The objective of present study was to formulate and evaluate the nutraceutical tablets with different combination of herbal drugs. Material and Method: The nutraceutical tablet containing lactose and mannitol as diluent and containing natural drugs like clove and cinnamon which was prepared by direct compression method. The compressed formulations were subject to several evaluation parameters like appearance, thickness, weight variation, hardness and friability. Results: The results of all evaluation parameters of nutraceutical tablet were within the acceptable limit. Pre-compression studies of nutraceutical tablet show satisfactory results. The thickness, hardness, weight variation, and friability of nutraceutical tablet were found to in acceptable range. The in-vitro drug release of eugenol from optimised nutraceutical formulation was found to be 90.23%. Significant results were obtained from present study. Discussion: The finding of current investigation clearly found that the health promotion of the body could be done by nutraceuticals. Keywords: Direct compression, Nutraceutical, Eugenol, In-vitro drug release.