Book excerpt: This 2-part reference informs readers about the application of drug delivery technologies to herbal medicines. Chapters cover a broad range of major topics on the subject of targeted drug delivery systems. These topics include the application of drug delivery systems for herbal nanomedicines, drug development issues, emerging technologies, adaptations for clinical use, market prospects and challenges of industrial commercialization. Chapters have been contributed by several experts in pharmaceutical chemistry and blend theoretical knowledge with practical aspects of drug delivery. Part I covers the following topics: - Introduction to nanotechnology and herbal-based nanoparticulate systems - Nucleic acid-based therapeutic drug delivery systems - Herbal bioactives: a booster dose for advanced pharmaceutical nanoscience - Pulmonary nano-drug delivery systems - Application of nano-drug delivery systems in improving the therapeutic efficacy of bioactive natural products - PEGylated liposomes - Insulin liposomes - Aquasomes: a promising novel drug carrier - Nanoparticle-aided herbal drugs: therapeutic implications on cholinergic dysfunction with relevance to Alzheimer’s disease - Vitamins based nanomedicine approach - Recent advances in tumor targeting drug delivery systems: fundamentals of advanced pharmaceutical nanoscience - Niosomes: a revolutionary progress in the field of pharmaceutical sciences - Infectious diseases: pharmaceutical nanoscience for targeted drug delivery This reference is a valuable resource for scholars that creates awareness of novel drug delivery systems as well as their promising applications in drug targeting, and nanotherapeutics for specific diseases.