Abstract
The current study was aimed to formulate and evaluate
bioadhesive gel containing microemulsion (ME) of itraconazole
(ITZ) and an attempt was made to investigate suitability of
tamarind gum (TG) as a gelling agent. The solubility of ITZ
in oils, surfactants and co-surfactant was evaluated for the
selection of appropriate component. The ratio of surfactant and
co-surfactant was optimized by constructing pseudoternary
phase diagram. Ternary phase diagram was constructed using
isopropyl myristate (IPM) and oleic acid (OA) as oil phase, tween
80 as surfactant and isopropyl alcohol (IPA) as cosurfactant
in order to obtain ME region. The optimized ME of ITZ was
characterized by its qualitative and quantitative tests and
incorporated into polymeric gels of carbopol (CBP), xanthan
gum (XG) and TG. The ME based ITZ gels were evaluated for
pH, drug content, viscosity, ex-vivo bioadhesion, spreadability
and in vitro drug release. Furthermore, antifungal activity of
the gels was performed by agar cup diffusion technique using
cultures of Candida albicans. ITZ showed maximum solubility
in mixture of IPM and OA (1:1). Stable ME was obtained when
IPM and OA was taken in the ratio of 1:1 as oil phase, Tween 80
as surfactant and isopropyl alcohol (IPA) as cosurfactant at the
weight ratio of 10:45:45. The optimized ME based gels showed
pH in the range of 6.11 to 6.48, spreadability in the range of 4.1
to 7.1gm.cm/sec and ex vivo bioadhesion in the range of 65 to
84gm. The viscosity study indicated pseudoplastic behaviour of
all ME based gel formulations. Amongst the studied ME gels,
TG containing gels exhibited fast and complete drug release at
the end of 24h. Formulation F7 containing TG showed wide
zone of inhibition and found to be stable for three months.
These results indicate that the TG containing ME gel may be a
used as vehicle for topical delivery of drugs.