Topical drug delivery is a convenient mode of drug delivery to treat localized infections. Topical medications are available in many dosage forms, such as creams, ointments, gels, pastes, and lotions. Both emulsions and gels are known for their benefits as topical preparations with few limitations. The literature on emulgel formulations was searched in June 2021 from various scientific journal articles. From a total of 102 searched articles, 24 duplicated articles and 36 irrelevantly judged on the abstract or full papers were excluded. Finally, 47 articles were selected for review. Emulgel possesses many promising properties for dermatological use such as being greaseless, easily removable, easily spreadable, emollient, non-staining, longer shelf-life, transparent, having an elegant appearance and having less potential to cause serious side-effects. Many formulation scientists have started to develop emulgel using various active pharmaceutical ingredients, especially which are hydrophobic in nature. We conclude that formulated emulgels have shown excellent results in aspects such as appearance, rate of drug penetration to skin, rate of drug release and therapeutic response. This review article is mainly focused on formulation, ingredients, methods, and recent developments in emulgel formulations.

Introduction: Costus speciosus is a common plant used for the treatment of diabetes mellitus and various other ailments in traditional medicine in Sri Lanka. The present study was conducted to investigate the hypoglycemic effect of the leaves of C. speciosus in both normal and alloxan induced male Wistar diabetic rat models. Methods: A methanolic extract of the leaves was produced and used for the preliminary phytochemicals screening. Methanol extract was further partitioned with different solvents (n-hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate and n-butanol) according to their polarity. Male Wistar rats weighing 150-220 g were randomly divided during the test. In vivo antidiabetic activity of partitioned fractions of C. speciosus leaves was performed in normal rats and alloxan induced NIDDM rats. Standard t-test was used to determine statistical significance. Results: A glucose tolerance test with normal rats indicated that peak levels of blood glucose were reached in 90 minutes after the glucose load. It is noteworthy that the test group recorded a significantly (p < 0.05) lower blood glucose level at 90 minutes, indicating that the 80 % methanol extract exerted an overall hypoglycemic effect with normal rats at 90 minutes, despite being challenged with glucose load. The same dose showed an improvement in the glucose tolerance of alloxan-induced diabetic rats, reducing the blood glucose at 90 minutes by 60 % compared with control. These effects were found to be comparable with the effect of the synthetic drug glipizide at a dose of 20 mg/kg. In alloxan-induced diabetic rats, long term administration of the 80% methanolic extract of C. speciosus leaves daily for 6 weeks resulted in a significant lowering of fasting and postprandial serum glucose when compared to diabetic control rats. Conclusion: Diabetic rats group treated with C. speciosus extract displayed significantly (p<0.05) decreased blood glucose level compared to the control group. Keywords: Alloxan, Costus speciosus, diabetes mellitus, hypoglycemia, anti-hyperglycemia

Topical herbal formulations are gaining more attention in wound healing due to their safety and efficacy. This is a systematic review of the effects of Curcuma longatopical formulations on wound healing. C. longa is a traditional medicinal plant used due to its antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and wound healing properties. Studies carried outas randomized control trials and clinical trials were included for the analysis of this review. Searches were conducted in PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and Google scholar (up to March 2022) with 04 studies meeting the inclusion criteria. All randomized control trials and clinical trials have shown a significant improvement in wound healing. The topical formulations containing C. longa as an ingredient have reportedly improved wound healing in cases of eczema, radiodermatitis, acne vulgaris, atopic dermatitis, ichthyosis vulgaris, senile pruritis, and xerotic skin conditions, according to the studies covered in this review.This review identified some evidence that C. longa extract has good effects for wound healing, in accordance with its use in traditional medicine. To evaluate the impact of C. longa on wound healing, including complications, larger, well-designed randomized control trials are required.

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