Emulgel

The topical drug delivery facilitates a direct entry into the skin as a vital organ for diagnosis and cure without any threat of passing through first pass metabolism. Emulgels are nothing but, the combination of emulsion and gel. Emulgel is one of the novel strategy widely employed in acne, fungal infection, arthritis, inflammation, psoriasis and other topical infections. Emulgel for dermatological use has several constructive properties such as being thixotropic, emollient, easily spreadable, easily washable, greaseless, non-staining, water-soluble, greater shelf life, bio-friendly, clear and pleasant appearance. Emulgel is emulsion, either of water in oil or oil in water type, which are gelled by mixing with gelling agent such as HPMC, carbopol etc. However, gels carry a drawback in delivery of hydrophobic drug moiety and thus emulgel can prove a novel topical drug delivery for hydrophobic drugs by incorporating hydrophobic drug into gels using o/w emulsions. Emulgel helps in the incorporation of hydrophobic drugs into the oil phase and then dispersion of oil globules in aqueous phase as a continuous phase, resulting in o/w emulsion and this emulsion can be incorporate into gel base.

When gels and emulsions are used in combined form the dosage form are referred as emulgel. Also there has been incredible interest for the utilization of novel polymers and drug molecules. A one of the feature of topical drug delivery is the immediate availability of the skin as  target organ for diagnosis and treatment. Among the different group of semisolid planning, the utilization of gel has extended both in cosmetics and in the pharmaceuticals. Although Gel has many advantages, there is many limitation in delivery of hydrophobic drugs, so to overcome this limitation an emulsion base novel approach is being most used. That is emugel system used so that even a hydrophobic moiety can enjoy the unique properties of gels and having characteristics of dual control release i.e. emulsion as well as gel. The formulation is prepared by various polymer which behave as an emulsifer and thickening agent because of gelling capacity of these compounds give rise to stable emulsions and creams by diminishing surface and interfacial pressure while in the meantime expanding the thickness of the aqueous phase. In order to understand the potential of emulgel as delivery vehicles, this review gives an overview of the ideal properties, formation, and characterization of emulgels. So this can be use as analgesics and antifungal drugs, as superior topical drug delivery systems over present conventional systems available in market.

Topical drug delivery systems have been utilized for centuries for the treatment of local skin disorders. One side the topical applications of the drug provides the potential advantages of delivering drug straightly to the site of action and delivering drug for extended period of time at the effected site that mainly acts at the related regions. On the other hand, topical delivery system elevates the contact time and mean resident time of drug. The aim of the work is to develop & characterize adapalene emulgel formulation. Adapalene emulgel formulations were prepared by dispersing Carbopol 934 in distilled water with constant stirring at a moderate speed, then the pH was adjusted to 6 - 6.5 using Triethanolamine. Evaluation of the adapalene emulgel was carried out for Physical appearance, Rheological study, pH values, Spreadability, Drug content determination, In vitro release study, Accelerated stability studies. It was noticed that all formulations were liquefied and diluted at the end of the experiments, indicating water diffusion through the membrane. The accelerated stability studies were performed according to ICH guidelines for three months & emulgels were found to be stable in differing temperature. The results demonstrate that the release of the drug is dependent on viscosity of the polymer used.

The aim of present work was to develop a emulgel for the topical delivery system which is useful in the treatment of vaginal fungal infection. Emulgels having advantage of both emulsion & gels which act as a controlled drug delivery system for topically applied drugs. The Gel in formulations were prepared by dispersing Carbopol 934 & Carbapole 940 in purified water. Then oil phase & aqueous phase of the emulsion were prepared. Both the oily and aqueous phases were heated separately & then oily phase were added to the aqueous phase. add Glutaraldehyde in during of mixing of gel and emulsion in ratio 1:1 to obtain the emulgel. Prepared emulgels was investigated for different parameters. All the prepared emulgels showed acceptable physical properties concerning colour, viscosity, melting point, pH value, and spreadability. The results of in-vitro drug release showed that carbopol 934 was the formula of choice as it showed better drug release & antifungal activity. FTIR studies revealed that drug and all excipients are compatible. The data obtained from in- vitro permeation studies was treated by various conventional mathematical models (zero order, first order, Higuchi and Korsmeyer- peppa’s) to determine the release mechanism from the designed emulgel formulations. Selection of a suitable release model was based on the values of R2 (correlation coefficient), k (release constant) obtained from the curve fitting of release data. It was found that all the formulations follows the first order kinetics. The regression coefficients for the all formulations F1 to F4 of Higuchi plot was found to be almost linear. Key words: Emulgel, tioconazole, antifungal drug, topical drug delivery.