Abstract

DEVELOPMENT AND INVITRO EVALUATION OF GEL CONTAINIG ETHOSOMES ENTRAPPED WITH SULFASALAZINE

Sowjanya S*, Shivanand K, Divakar G, Tejaswi G, Venkatanagaraju E, Swetha M

ABSTRACT

Sulfasalazine drug is having half life of 5 to 7 h and used for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. The oral use of Sulfasalazine is not much recommended as it requires frequent administration. The entrapment of drug in a vesicle has shown improved delivery of drug at the targeted site and has also reduced the side effects thus, has shown better patient compliance. Ethosomes are lipid vesicular carriers containing high concentration of ethanol which provides better penetration of drug into the skin. Ethosomes of Sulfasalazine were prepared by hot method. The composition includes phospholipids (1- 3%), ethanol (20-40%), propylene glycol (10%) and distilled water up to 100%. Liposomes of Sulfasalazine were also prepared by thin film hydration technique. Selected formulations were subjected to sonication for reducing the vesicle size. FT-IR study confirmed the purity of drug and revealed no interaction between the drug and excipients. Ethosomes and liposomes were characterized for vesicle shape, vesicle size, entrapment efficiency percentage, in vitro drug diffusion. Sonicated ethosomes showed better results than unsonicated ethosomes. %CDR after 12 h for ethosomal, liposomal are 92.3 ±0.323, 73.1 ±0.132 % and respectively. Ethosomal formulation (F6) was found stable at 2-8°C and at room temperature during the storage of 2 months. Efficient delivery of drug to deep skin stratum from ethosomal drug application found to be highly beneficial in localizing the drug to desired site in the skin and reduced the side effects associated with conventional treatments.

Keywords: Ethosomes; Sulfasalazine; Soya Phosphotidyl Choline.