Relationship between the water number of ointment bases and the in­ vitro release of medicaments / Muhammad Ikram Harizon

Water number of ointment bases may be defined as the largest amount of water held by 100 gm of the base at definite temperature. In this study, it seemed interesting to find whether the water number of the ointment base affects the release of medicament from them. Both oleaginous and absorption ointment bases were chosen for this study. Ketoconazole, an antifungal hydrophobic drug was selected for this research in a concentration of 1 %. The in-vitro release of ketoconazole from the tested bases was performed by the Franz diffusion cell using cellulose acetate membrane at 32°C. Ketoconazole released was determine by UV spectrophotometer at 269 nm. Addition of cetostearyl alcohol to soft paraffin has increased the water number of soft paraffin from 11.5 ml to 57.5 ml, while for wool fat the water number of 202.5 ml was determined. The tested bases can be arranged in the following descending order according to the release of ketoconazole: Wool fat > soft paraffin with cetostearyl alcohol > soft paraffin.