Skin permeation study of ibuprofen emulsions by using franz diffusion cell / Mastria Mohamed

The topical delivery of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) such as Ibuprofen is a potential method of avoiding the first pass effects and the gastric irritation, which may occur when used orally. Ibuprofen is formulated into many topical preparations to reduce the adverse effects and simultaneously avoid the hepatic first-pass metabolism as well. However, it is difficult to obtain an effective concentration through topical delivery of Ibuprofen due to its low skin permeability. The aim of this study was to develop ibuprofen into nanoemulsions and microemulsion formulations and focused on the improving the permeation of these formulations with the help of propylene glycol as chemical enhancer. The effectiveness of propylene glycol as chemical enhancer was evaluated by comparing the cumulative amount and flux of each sample collected from synthetic and rat membrane by in vitro study using Franz diffusion cells. Results demonstrated that addition of propylene glycol into each formulation increased the particle size and uniformity in microemulsion but reduced the uniformity in nanoemulsion. Nanoemulsion formulations did enhanced ibuprofen permeation with the significant different (P<0.05) in both synthetic and rat membrane. Propylene glycol action on synthetic and rat membrane as chemical enhancer was insignificant (P>0.05) as the ibuprofen permeation was too minute.