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This review discusses the reports of alternative dosage forms to suspension formulations of hydrophobic drugs for nebulisers. Suspensions for nebulisers, although widely used over recent years, have several limitations which have led to pharmaceutical researchers looking for alternative, better performing preparations. Particular attention has been directed towards the use of nanoparticles as carriers of hydrophobic active ingredients. Several nanoformulations have been prepared and compared in vitro and/or in vivo with the corresponding microsuspension formulation. It is also clear that future studies in this field should address the parallel important aspects of safety and economical aspects of nanoparticualte formulations.

Chitosan was isolated and purified from the mycelia of Rhizomucor miehei and Mucor racemosus. To characterize the extracted materials, their FTIR spectra were compared with that of shrimp chitosan. Final degree of deacetylation which determined by (1)H NMR was obtained as 98.6% for chitosan from R. miehei (named as C1) and 97.1% for chitosan from M. racemosus (named as C2), respectively. To investigate the antimicrobial properties of the isolated fungal chitosans, minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values were performed against twelve strains of bacteria and fungi. Data obtained generally showed that the antibacterial and antifungal activities of the purified fungal chitosans were more effective against Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeroginosa, Candida albicans and Candida glabrata in comparison to the shrimp chitosan. Taken together, the results suggest that the use of the fungal chitosan could be of interest as a suitable alternative source to shrimp chitosan.