No abstract

In this study, the porous cellulose hydrogel as a carrier to enhance the skin delivery of quercetin and its glycoside, rutin known as flavonoid antioxidants was prepared and its properties were investigated. The optimum cellulose hydrogel for quercetin and rutin was made by the reaction of 2 wt% cellulose with 12% ECH. In the release test of the hydrogel containing the flavonoids, the release of quercetin was diffusion-controlled at 10~500 µM, but rutin was released by the erosion of hydrogel system at 10~50 µM. Both the encapsulation efficiency and release amount of rutin in hydrogel were higher than quercetin. However, in skin permeation experiment using Franz diffusion cell, quercetin showed higher skin permeation capacity than rutin. The hydrogel containing flavonoids showed remarkable transdermal permeation than the control group. These results suggest that porous cellulose hydrogel is potential drug delivery system to enhance transdermal permeation of water-insoluble flavonoid antioxidants.