Design, Development and Evaluation of Nano-formulations for a New Class of Antifungals

Abstract

The main objective of the study was to develop and evaluate nanoemulgel of Eberconazole for topical delivery in treating fungal infections. Nanoemulgel was prepared by nanoemulsion. For screening of nanoemulsion components, solubility of Eberconazole in various oils, surfactants and co-surfactants were done for their ability to nanoemulsify the selected oily phase. Of all the oils tested almond oil was chosen as suitable oil phase as it showed good solubilising capacity and excellent drug penetration. Drug loaded nanoemulsion was prepared using Span 20 as surfactant, PEG 400 as co-surfactant, Almond oil as oil phase and distilled water as aqueous phase by ultrasonic emulsification method. The formulations were evaluated for mean particle size, polydispersibility index, zeta potential by changing the process parameters. Nanoemulsion composed of oil (1%), surfactant (0.6%), co-surfactant (0.2%) and water (0.4%) was finally selected as optimized nanoemulsion. The optimized formulation had small average globule diameter of 387.3nmwith polydispersibility index of 0.492 and zeta potential of -29.5. This formulation was incorporated into gel. Prepared nanoemulgel was further studied for drug content, in-vitro drug release using Franz diffusion cell. The drug release from the formulation was found to be 15.29±0.20% at the end of 6 hrs. These results suggest that nanoemulgel can be used as potential vehicle for improved topical delivery of Eberconazole.