APPROACHES FOR TASTE MASKING USING STEVIA LEAF IN PHARAMCEUTICALS

Oral administration of pharmaceuticals is one of the most popular method of drug dilevery.Taste is an important factor in the development of dosage form. Many active Pharmaceutical ingredients are bitter and require some form of taste masking to yield palatable drug products. Proven methods for bitterness reduction and inhibition have resulted in improved palatability of oral pharmaceuticals. Several approaches like adding flavors and sweeteners, use of lipoproteins for inhibiting bitterness, coating of drug with inert agents, microencapsulation, multiple emulsion, viscosity modifiers, liposome, prodrug formation, salt formation, formation of inclusion and molecular complexes, solid dispersion system and application of ion exchange resins have been tried by the formulators to mask the unpleasant taste of the bitter drugs but these methods are highly cost effective. Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni, source of a high-potency natural sweetener and produces diterpene glycosides that are low calorie sweeteners, about 300 times sweeter than saccharose with addition inclusion of without interfere.