K Gowthamarajan is on the faculty of the Department of Pharmaceutics in JSS College of Pharmacy, Ootacamund. His research interests are in the area of designing drug delivery systems for peptides and proteins. He is currently involved in research on pharmaceutical applications of plant polysaccharides.

Giriraj T Kulkarni is on the faculty of the Department of Pharmaceutics in JSS College of Pharmacy, Ootacamund. Currently, he is involved in research on pharmaceutical and biotechnological applications of plant polysaccharides. He has authored a book ‘Biotechnology and its Applications in Pharmacy’ for undergraduate and post-graduate students of pharmacy.

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Insulin is a major protein hormone secreted by the b-cells of the pancreas and is important for the control of diabetes. Insulin is usually administered to diabetic patients through subcutaneous injection. This mode of therapy has certain inherent disadvantages such as local pain, itching and insulin lipodystrophy around the injection site. Hence, pharmaceutical scientists have been trying to design an oral delivery system for insulin. Many challenges are associated with the oral delivery of insulin, relating to the physical and chemical stability of the hormone, and its absorption and metabolism in the human body. Here we discuss various strategies for the oral delivery of insulin that are being tried out, as well as methods used to improve the absorption of orally consumed insulin and to reduce its degradation by digestive enzymes.

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Address for Correspondence

K Gowthamarajan* and
Giriraj T Kulkarni
Department of Pharmaceutics,
J S S College of Pharmacy, Rocklands,
Ootacamund 643 001, Tamil Nadu, India.
*Email: gowthamsan@rediffmail.com