Advanced nanocarrier delivery and therapeutic systems for natural drug molecules: mechanisms, applications, and future perspectives.

BACKGROUND: Natural drug molecules often face challenges such as poor water solubility and low bioavailability, which limit their clinical efficacy. Nanocarrier technology offers a promising strategy to address these bottlenecks by improving solubility, protecting active ingredients, and enabling targeted delivery.

AIM: of Review: This review systematically surveys the state-of-the-art progress of diverse nanocarrier systems for the delivery of natural drug molecules. It uniquely emphasizes the rational design of nanocarriers, the elucidation of molecular-level interaction mechanisms between natural drugs and nanocarriers, and strategies for achieving specific target recognition and controlled release. Key Scientific Concepts of Review: This review illustrates how the strategic design of various nanocarriers can overcome the inherent physicochemical and biopharmaceutical limitations of natural drug molecules. By elucidating their interaction mechanisms, this review provides an essential foundation for the rational design of nanocarrier-natural drug systems. Furthermore, it critically analyzes translational bottlenecks such as biocompatibility and scalable manufacturing and proposes future directions for next-generation nanocarrier platforms by integrating cutting-edge interdisciplinary approaches, including multistimuli-responsive systems, AI-driven design, and biomimetic strategies.