2Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey DOI : 10.29228/jrp.336 Curcumin has been used in many diseases due to its high therapeutical potential in recent years. Although curcumin is a frequently used natural polyphenolic compound products, its low solubility and poor permeability limits the dermal efficacy of curcumin. Emulgels are a new generation of semi-solid formulations that combine the advantages of both emulsions and gels. The biggest limitation of emulsions is surfactant related irritation problems caused by the use of high amount of surfactants. In this study, it was aimed to increase the skin permeability of curcumin by developing surfactant-free emulgel formulations. In the study, emulgels were developed by Carbopol 940 gels as the aqueous phase, olive oil and curcumin methanol solution as the oil phase. No surfactant was used additionally to show the stabilizing effect of Carbopol in emulgels.
The emulgel formulations were subjected to physicochemical characterization by means of organoleptic properties, pH, rheological and mechanical properties. Mechanical properties were carried out by texture profile analyzes to determine the structure related properties such as hardness, compressibility, adhesiveness, cohesiveness and elasticity. The spreadability of the formulations was also determined with Texture Analyzer. Obtained emulgels showed good rheological, mechanical and spreadability properties. The transdermal permeation of the chosen emulgel was studied ex vivo against hydrogel prepared with the same amount of Carbopol. The emulgel formulation significantly increased transdermal permeation compared to the hydrogel. This emulgel formulation successfully passed from stress tests.
As a conclusion, the novel surfactant-free emulgel formulation was successfully developed to increase curcumin permeation through the rat skin.
Keywords : Emulgel, surfactant-free, curcumin, texture analysis, spreadability, 23 factorial design