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ObjectivesPatients with serious injury need special care and treatment to control the infection, as wound sepsis is one of the major causes of death. Silver sulfadiazine (SSD) is widely used as an antimicrobial agent which promotes healing and re-epithelialization. However, due to certain drawbacks such as inflammation and cytotoxicity, the need for novel drug delivery modality emerges. The objective of this study was to develop natural polymeric (chitosan and gelatin) hydrogel sponges containing SSD and evaluate its efficacy in wound healing using animal models.MethodsSSD containing hydrogel sponges were prepared by solvent casting technique. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) were used to evaluate morphological characteristics of the hydrogel sponges. Anti-thrombogenic property, drug release studies, drug release kinetics, antimicrobial property, and wound healing effect were also studied in detail.ResultsThe optimized batch of hydrogel sponges (CG4) consists of 1% SSD wt., 10% wt. Gelatin, 1% wt. Chitosan and honey 7.5% wt. as plasticizer. At the 12th hour, in vitro and ex vivo drug release was found to be 76.994±0.67% and 24.22±0.57% respectively. CG4 batch had enhanced in vitro antimicrobial activity as compared to conventional marketed cream. The developed SSD hydrogel sponges showed a faster rate of wound healing as compared to a marketed cream. Animals treated with CG4 formulation showed complete angiogenesis and re-epithelialization by 8th day, whereas 12 days were required for complete wound healing with marketed cream.ConclusionsThe prepared hydrogel sponges can serve as a potential alternative for wound healing dressing as compared to the marketed product.

In recent years, natural ingredients have gained importance for therapeutic treatment due to their minimal toxicity. However, the delivery of these phytoconstituents poses a challenge to provide better efficacy. Current research reports the development of nanoemulgel (NEG) loaded with ginger oleoresin (GOR) and lipid guggul extract (LGE) for the management of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The nanoemulsion (NE) was developed using the spontaneous emulsification technique by the pseudo-ternary method. The optimized nanoemulsion exhibited globule size of 16.08±2.55, PDI of 0.187±0.06 and Zeta Potential of-22.4±0.31. The cumulative release from in-vitro diffusion studies at pH 7.4 was about 99.72±3.47%, 57.98±2.11% and 86.42±5.13% of 6-gingerol, E-guggulsterone and Z-guggulsterone respectively at the end of 24 hours. The ex vivo studies on porcine ear skin showed sustained release with 92.8±3.21% for 6-gingerol, 55.61±0.91% for E-guggulsterone, and 84.2±4.22% for Z-guggulsterone released at the end of 24 hours. The cell culture studies on RAW 264.7 cells indicated a robust inhibition of LPS-induced IL-6 and TNF-α production indicating its efficacy in the management of RA. The Preclinical studies on male Wistar rats suggests that the developed NEG exhibited a comparable decrease in paw edema inflammation as compared to the marketed diclofenac sodium gel. These encouraging results demonstrates the potential of the developed nanoemulgel containing combination of GOR and LGE for the management of RA.

Polyherbal formulations have proved to be efficacious for the therapeutic treatment of various diseases, However, the development of validated robust analytical methods for quantification is a major challenge. The aim of this project was to develop a simple analytical method for the quantification of 6-gingerol (6-GIN), E-guggulsterone (E-GGS) and Z-guggulsterone (Z-GGS) in nanoemulsion based gel using reverse phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC). 6-GIN, E-GGS and Z-GGS were quantified using acetonitrile: water: methanol (70:20:10 V/V/V) as the mobile phase at 1.0 mL min-1 flow rate with photodiode array detection. The developed method was validated for linearity, accuracy, precision, specificity and robustness as per ICH Q2 (R1) guidelines. The drug content of the three actives in the developed nanoemulgel was found to be between 90% to 110% w/w. The developed analytical method is simple and can be used for quantification of 6-GIN, E-GGS and Z-GGS in fixed dose product containing these actives.