Fabrication and Characterizations of Pharmaceutical Emulgel Co-Loaded with Naproxen-Eugenol for Improved Analgesic and Anti-Inflammatory Effects

Abstract

The aim of this study was to fabricate and characterize a pharmaceutical emulgel co-loaded with naproxen/eugenol for transdermal delivery to improve the analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects and to eliminate GIT adverse reactions. Emulgel was prepared using a slow emulsification method and evaluated for physical appearance, thermodynamic stability, viscosity, pH, spreadability, extrudability, in-vitro drug release, drug content, ex-vivo permeation, drug retention studies and in-vivo studies. The emulgel exhibited good physical attributes, being thermodynamically stable with no phase separation, having excellent homogeneity, and pH 5.5 to 6.5. Slight changes in viscosity, spreadability and extrudability with respect to high temperature were observed (p > 0.05). The drug content was 96.69 ± 1.18% and 97.24 ± 1.27% for naproxen and eugenol, respectively. The maximum release of naproxen after 12 h was 85.14 ± 1.11%, whereas eugenol was 86.67 ± 1.23% from emulgel following anomalous non-Fickian mechanism. The maximum % permeation of naproxen across skin was 78.5 ± 1.30, whereas maximum % permeation of eugenol was 83.7 ± 1.33 after 12 h. The skin retention of eugenol and naproxen was 8.52 ± 0.22% and 6.98 ± 0.24%, respectively. The optimized emulgel inhibited the carrageenan induced paw edema. The pain reaction times of optimized emulgel and standard marketed product (Voltral®) were 11.16 ± 0.17 and 10.36 ± 0.47, respectively, with no statistically significant difference (p > 0.05). This study concluded that transdermal delivery of naproxen-eugenol emulgel synergized the anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects of naproxen and eugenol.

A Comparison between the Molecularly Imprinted and Non-Molecularly Imprinted Cyclodextrin-Based Nanosponges for the Transdermal Delivery of Melatonin

“…The M-βCD:CA MIP-NSs 1:8 (10% Melatonin) cream formulation had the highest apparent viscosity. The viscosity is an important property for the processing, handling of the products, and controlling of the drug release since it can affect the therapeutic efficiency of the formulation [ 105 ]. The viscosity was higher for M-βCD:CA MIP-NSs 1:8 cream formulation rather than the βCD:CA MIP-NSs 1:8 cream formulation [ 25 , 26 ], an observation that can be related to the swelling capacity and spreadability of MIP-NSs and NIP-NSs (as displayed in Table 3 and Table S1 in Supplementary Materials ).…”

Exploring the gelling properties of Plantago ovata-based Arabinoxylan: Fabrication and optimization of a topical emulgel using response surface methodology

“…PEG was used in nimesulide emulgel which act as a permeation enhancer. After application, integrity of stratum corneum got changed, leading to enhanced percutaneous absorption of developed formulation as compared to marketed product [ 44 ]. Statistically, the outcomes of the study, analgesic effect, were found significantly different ( p < 0.05) for the treated group as compared to control group in the student’s t -test.…”

Exploring the gelling properties of Plantago ovata-based Arabinoxylan: Fabrication and optimization of a topical emulgel using response surface methodology

“…PEG was used in nimesulide emulgel which act as a permeation enhancer. After application, integrity of stratum corneum got changed, leading to enhanced percutaneous absorption of developed formulation as compared to marketed product [43]. Statistically, the outcomes of the study, analgesic effect, were found signi cantly different (p < 0.05) for the treated group as compared to control group in the student's t-test.…”