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B. KELLER, Biozone Laboratories, Inc., 580 Garcia Avenue, Pittsburg, CA 94565

Liposomes are self-assembled, self-closed colloidal particles in which their membrane is composed from a lipid bilayer and encapsulates a fraction of the solvent in which they are suspended. Because liposomes can entrap hydrophilic molecules into their interior, and hydrophobic molecules into their lipophilic membrane, they have been used as a delivery system for many different molecules. Liposomes have been used in drug delivery, in a wide range of applications from chemotherapy to blood surrogates, and skin treatment products. In addition liposomes can be effective carriers for nutritionally valuable ingredients. GI instability has long been a curse of liposomes and hepatic metabolism of nutritionally valuable ingredients has caused, at times, less than therapeutic amounts to reach the blood stream. Due to these significant draw backs of an oral delivery an inter-oral delivery system has been developed called LipoSpary®. To bypass the destabilization of liposomes and nutritional ingredients in the lower GI tract we developed a delivery system that targets inter-oral tissue and lymphatic ducts in efforts to enhance product performance by increasing bioavailability and stability. Over fifty products have been formulated using this novel liposomal delivery system. By increasing inter-oral absorption, compounds encapsulated into liposomes are absorbed through lipophilic oral mucosal membranes. During our development of a convenient, more efficient way of nutritional delivery we discovered that nature too, provides an oral delivery system in mother’s milk, which also contains liposomes. We are still investigating if the occurrence of liposomes in human milk is a result of the complex colloidal equilibrium or has a specific purpose, for instance, antigen presentation.