ABSTRACT
Objective: To prepare osthole foaming microemulsion and study its foaming force. Methods: In this paper, the overall desirability of drug loading rate, half foam life period, and foaming force was taken as index. Based on the result of solubility test and pseudo-ternary phase diagram, the formula for the osthole foaming microemulsion was optimized by D-optimal mixture optimization design test. Results: The optimal ratio of the prescription was as follows: ethyl oleate-Cremophor EL-40-transcutol P-water (8.13: 14.81: 6.58: 71.44); Average particle size was (43.54 ± 3.43) nm (n=3), average polydispersity factor was (0.839 ± 0.092) % (n=3), average potential was (-2.32 ± 0.78) mV (n=3), frothing volume was (8.57 ± 0.28) cm, half foam life period was (6.79 ± 0.32) min. At 37℃, the maximum drug loading of foaming microemulsion was 13.62 mg/g, and the solubility in water was 0.42 mg/mL. Conclusion: Osthole foaming microemulsion was stable, which could greatly increase the solubility of osthole and remarkably enhance the bioavailability of osthole.