Ethosomes as Novel Drug Delivery System: A Review.

ABSTRACT

The ethosomes are vesicular carrier comprise of hydroalcoholic or hydro/alcoholic/glycolic phospholipid in which the concentration of alcohols or their combination is relatively high. To provide continuous drug infusion through an intact skin, several transdermal therapeutic systems have been developed for topical application onto the intact skin surface to control the delivery of drug and its subsequent permeation through the skin tissue. Transdermal route is promising alternative to drug delivery for systemic effect. An attempt was made to formulate the highly efficient ethosomal drug delivery system and enalapril meleate is used as model drug. The following conclusion are drown from the result and discussion described in the previous chapter. Liposomal formulation was also prepared by the thin film hydration method. The techniques used were simple and reproducible. The prepared ethosomes were spherical and discrete in shape. The size of vesicles were found to be in the range of 3.26-5.79 tim,o.716-1.3o1 tim and 5.32 tim for unsonicated ethosomes, sonicated ethosomes and liposomes respectively. However ethosomes prepared by sonication method were more uniform and smaller in size, which is essential for skin permeation. While comparing the entrapment efficiency, ethosomes containing 3o% w/w ethanol and prepared by sonication showed highest value with respect to all other formulation, so it is concluded ethosomes prepared by sonication and containing 3o% w/w ethanol as the best formulation considering all other aspects. The highest value of transdermal flux for sonicated ethosomes containing 3o% w/w ethanol is the indication of complete and rapid penetration through the skin may be because of tiny vesicular size.