Lipids for Taste masking and Taste assessment in pharmaceutical formulations

Pharmaceutical products often have drawbacks of unacceptable taste and palatability which makes it quite difficult for oral administration to some special populations like pediatrics and geriatrics. To curb this issue different approaches like coating, granulation, extrusion, inclusion complexation, ion-exchange resins, etc for taste masking are employed and among them use of lipids have drawn special attention of researchers. Lipids have a lower melting point which is ideal for incorporating drugs in some of these methods like hot-melt extrusion, melt granulation, spray drying/congealing and emulsification. Lipids play a significant role as a barrier to sustain the release of drugs and biocompatible nature of lipids increases their acceptability by the human body. Further, lipids provide vast opportunities of altering pharmacokinetics of the active ingredients by modulating release profiles. In taste sensors, also known as electronic tongue or e-tongue, lipids are used in preparing taste sensing membranes which are subsequently used in preparing taste sensors. Lipid membrane taste sensors have been widely used in assessing taste and palatability of pharmaceutical and food formulations. This review explores applications of lipids in masking the bitter taste in pharmaceutical formulations and significant role of lipids in evaluation of taste and palatability.