Abstract

A REVIEW ON MICROEMULSION-BASED HYDROGEL FORMULATIONS: A RECENT APPROCH FOR TOPICAL DELIVERY OF FLUCONAZOLE

Jahanvi R. Parikh*, Jigar Vyas and U. M. Upadhyay

ABSTRACT

Microemulsions, which are optically isotropic and thermodynamically stable systems of water, oil, surfactant, and/or co-surfactant, have been studied as drug delivery systems because of their capacity to solubilize poorly water soluble drugs as well as their enhancement of topical and systemic availability. The solubility of FZ in oils, surfactants and cosurfactantsis evaluated to identify the components of the microemulsion. The pseudo-ternary phase diagrams is constructed using the novel phase diagram by micro-plate dilution method. Carbopol EDT 2020 is used to convert FZ-loaded microemulsions into gel form without affecting their structure. The selected microemulsions were assessed for globule size, zeta potential and polidispersity index. Besides this, the microemulsion-loaded hydrogel (MEH) formulations were evaluated for drug content, pH, rheological properties and in vitro drug release through synthetic membrane and excised pig ear skin in comparison with a conventional hydrogel. The optimised MEH FZ formulations consisting of FZ 2%, Transcutol P 11.5% and 11%, respectively, as oil phase, Lansurf SML 20-propyleneglycol 52% and 50%, respectively, as surfactant–cosurfactant (2:1), Carbopol EDT 2020 1.5% as gelling agent and water 34.5% and 37%, respectively, showed highest flux values and high release rate values, and furthermore, they hadlow surfactant content. Finally, the optimised MEH FZ formulations showed similar or slightly higher antifungal activity as compared to that of conventional hydrogel and Nizoral® cream, respectively.

Keywords: fluconazole; in vitro skin permeation; microemulsion; microemulsion- loaded hydrogel; topical.