The self emulsifying drug delivery system (SEDDS) is considered to be the novel technique for the delivery of lipophillic plant actives. The self emulsifying (SE) formulation significantly enhance the solubility and bioavailability of poorly aqueous soluble phytoconstituents. The self emulsifying drug delivery system (SEDDS) can be developed for such plant actives to enhance the oral bioavailability using different excipients (lipid, surfactant, co solvent etc.) and their concentration is selected on the basis of pre formulation studies like phase equilibrium studies, solvent capacity of oil for drug and mutual miscibility of excipients. The present review focuses mainly on the development of SEDDS and effect of excipients on oral bioavailability and aqueous solubility of poorly water soluble phytoconstituents/ derived products. A recent list of patents issued for self emulsifying herbal formulation has also been included. The research data for various self emulsifying herbal formulation and patents issued were reviewed using different databases such as PubMed, Google Scholar, Google patents, Scopus and Web of Science. In a nutshell, we can say that SEDDS was established as a novel drug delivery system for herbals and with the advances in this technique, lots of patents on herbal SEDDS can be translated into the commercial products.