FORMULATION AND EVALUATION OF TRANSDERMAL FILMS OF ENALAPRIL MALEATE

Transdermal drug delivery systems are becoming more popular in the field of modern pharmaceutics. The present study has been carried out to develop matrix type transdermal films containing Enalapril maleate with different ratios of HPMC (hydroxyl propyl methyl cellulose) alone, EC (ethyl cellulose) alone and combination of both HPMC & EC. Propylene glycol 3% is used as plasticizer and span80 is used as permeation enhancer. Formulated transdermal films were evaluated with regard to physicochemical characteristics, in-vitro permeation studies and analysed by using various kinetic models. Kinetic data revealed that the drug release followed first order kinetics and the mechanism of release was found to be non fickian diffusion. The results of the study shows that Enalapril maleate could be administered transdermally through the matrix type TDDS for effective control of hypertension, congestive heart failure and angina pectoris.