Table 2.

Comparative Evaluation of Phytosome, Liposomes, Niosome, Ethosome and Transfersomes in Nano-Delivery Systems

Characteristics	Phytosome	Liposome	Niosome	Ethosome	Transfersome
Composition	Phospholipids and polyphenolic phytoconstituents	Phospholipids and cholesterol	Non-ionic surfactant and cholesterol	Phospholipid, alcohol, polyglycol and water	Phospholipids and surfactant mixture
Flexibility	Rigid	Rigid	Rigid	Elasticity	Ultra-deformable
Main application	Phyto-delivery	Drug and gene delivery	Drug delivery and cosmetics	Skin delivery	Skin delivery
Administration	Oral, parenteral topical, transdermal	Oral, parenteral topical, transdermal	Oral, parenteral topical, transdermal	Topical and transdermal	Topical and transdermal
Key features	High entrapment efficiency along with a depot formation which releases the contents slowly	Biocompatibility, capacity for self-assembly, ability to carry large drug payloads	Improved dispersion of compounds with solubility issues, high stability, low-cost materials	Enhance permeation of drugs across/through the skin in an efficient manner	High deforming ability which ensures deeper penetration in skin layers
Limitations	Leaching of the phytoconstituents which reduces the desired drug concentration indicating their unstable nature	Low skin penetration, low stability	Low skin penetration and toxicity of surfactant	Poor yield, coalescence and fall apart on transfer into water, Loss of product during transfer form organic to water media	Toxic effect of surfactant
Marketed Product	Leucoselect, Greenselect, Panax ginseng, Sabalselect, etc.	Doxil, Abelcet, Visudyne, DepoDur, etc.	Lancome and L’Oreal	MaccabiCARE, Nanominox, Trima, etc.	Daktarin