Formulation and Evaluation of Emulgel for Topical Drug Delivery

Abstract

Nowadays topical administration is the favored route for local or site targeted delivery of therapeutic agents due to its suitability and affordability. Conventional topical drug delivery systems suffer from various drawbacks such as poor retention and low bioavailability. So, to avoid these drawbacks emulgel is developed which can manipulate the skin barriers due to presence of soluble drug carrier. Emulgel is the combination of both gel and emulsion. Emulgel is the most effective delivery system for delivery of hydrophobic drugs. Emulgel, a colloidal system where the oil phase of the emulsion is dispersed in a gel medium. Delivery of hydrophobic drugs through the gel is due to the presence of oil globules in the emulsion which act as a carrier for drug molecules. Emulgel was prepared by adding gelling agent into the aqueous phase of emulsion and then oil droplets with drug into it was added dropwise. The emulgel was optimized using 33 (3 factors and 3 levels) Box-Behnken design. The independent variables that were taken into consideration were concentration of polymer, concentration of oil and concentration of surfactant. Whereas, dependent variables/ response variables were viscosity, spreadibility and drug release. As the concentration of carbopol 940 increased, the value of spreadibility decreases. It will also show that the drug release profile of the formulations will also be decreased.

Keywords: Dirac’s elegant, Relativistic, Newtonian point