Abstract

REVIEW ON MICROEMULSION- AS A POTENTIAL NOVEL DRUG DELIVERY SYSTEM

Rohit Bhattacharya*, Sayantan Mukhopadhyay, Prof. Dr. Preeti Kothiyal

ABSTRACT

The industrial process and research have made a tremendous advancement in the application of microemulsion since the microemulsions were discovered by Jack H. Shulman. Microemulsions are macroscopically and optically isotropic mixtures of at least a hydrophobic, a hydrophilic and an amphiphillic part. These are stable than other emulsion forms, clear, frequently combined with a co-surfactant their diameter is in the range of 10-140μm. Nowadays, the microemulsion formulations are used all over to deliver the hydrophilic as well as the lipophillic drugs as drug carriers because they have much better drug solubilizing ability, improved bioavailability, long shelf life, the ease of preparations, ultra low interfacial tension and large interfacial area. In this review article, the various advantages of microemulsions in the pharmaceuticals, methods of preparation, classification of microemulsion, evaluation parameters and the different research works on the microemulsions are described. Microemulsions show effective topical delivery mechanisms for various Active pharmaceutical ingredients for the therapeutic as well as the cosmetic applications. The topical microemulsions show very fast penetration of the active molecules which is basically due to the large surface area of the internal phase, also their contents minimize the barrier property of the stratum corneum. Hence the microemulsions enhance the topical absorption as compared to the other primitive formulations, so they are thus a very promising carrier due to their vast ability and potential for the transdermal drug delivery.

Keywords: Microemulsions, corneum, hydrophilic, lipophilic.