PRONIOSOMAL GEL OF FLURBIPROFEN: FORMULATION AND EVALUATION

The purpose of this research is to design proniosomal gel drug delivery system of flurbiprofen in a trial to overcome the adverse effects associated with oral administration of the drug. This can be overcome by the use of vesicular drug delivery system. Encapsulation of a drug in vesicular structure can be predicted to prolong the existence of the drug in the systemic circulation and thus enhance penetration into target tissue and reduce toxicity. Due to the limited solvent system present, the proniosomes formed were the mixture of many phases of liquid crystal, viz. lamellar, hexagonal and cubic phase liquid crystals. The potential of proniosomes as a transdermal drug delivery system of flurbiprofen was investigated by encapsulating the drug in various formulations of proniosomal gel composed of various ratios of sorbitan fatty acid esters, cholesterol, prepared by coacervation-phase separation method. The formulated systems were characterized in vitro for size, vesicle count, drug entrapment, drug release profiles and vesicular stability at different storage conditions. Stability studies for proniosomal gel were carried out for 4 weeks. The method of proniosome loading resulted in an encapsulation yield of 30.6 – 75.4%. Invitro studies showed prolonged release of entrapped flurbiprofen. At refrigerated conditions, higher drug retention was observed. It is evident from this study that proniosomes are a promising prolonged delivery system for flurbiprofen and have reasonably good stability characteristics.