Effect of penetration enhancers on topical antifungal gel

Topical dosage forms are successfully used as drug delivery systems to treat various fungal infections considering their ability to control drug release and to protect medicaments from a hostile environment. Thus, it was desired in this study to topical Itraconazole gel that could be used locally in the treatment of various fungal infections. Itraconazole is an imidazole derivative and used for the treatment of various local and systemic fungal infections. The oral use of Itraconazole has many side effects, thus this formulation is made for better patient compliance and to reduce the dose of drug and to avoid the side effects like liver damage and kidney damage. FT-IR study confirmed the purity of drug. Carbopol 940 (1.5%), HPMC (3%) were used as gelling agents. Different penetration enhancers like Tween 80, oleic acid and propylene glycol were used in 2.5,5,10 proportions in gel formulations. Total 20 batches were prepared by using two gelling agents and three penetration enhancers. Gel formulations were characterized for drug content, pH determination, viscosity measurement, spreadability, in vitro diffusion and skin irritation. All the gel formulations showed satisfactory results for above parameters. Diffusion study is carried out to check penetrability of penetration enhancers. Carbapol gel formulation containing maximum concentration of Tween 80 i.e.10% (Batch CF4) is selected as optimized formulation, due to highest diffusion. Thus topical gel with Tween 80 is found more effective for topical Itraconazole delivery with better penetration, where skin is the target site for to treat fungal infections.