FORMULATION AND IN-VITRO EVALUATION OF GEL CONTAINING ETHOSOMES ENTRAPPED WITH ETODOLAC

Etodolac is an indole acetic acid derivative having half-life of 4 to 7 h and used for the treatment Rheumatoid arthritis. The oral use of Etodolac is not much recommended as it has many systemic side effects. The entrapment of drug in a vesicle has shown improved delivery of drug at the targeted site and has also reduced the dose and thus, has shown better patient compliance. Ethosomes are lipid vesicular carriers containing   ethanol which provides better penetration of drug into the skin. Ethosomes of Etodolac were prepared by hot method. The composition includes phospholipid, ethanol, propylene glycol and distilled water. Liposomes of Etodolac were also prepared by thin film hydration technique. Selected formulations were subjected to sonication for reducing the vesicle size. FT-IR study confirmed the purity of drug and revealed no interaction between the drug and excipients. Ethosomes and liposomes were characterized for vesicle shape, vesicle size, entrapment efficiency percentage, in vitro drug diffusion.  %CDR after 8 h for ethosomal, liposomal are 76.55 ± 0.70%, 65.61 ± 0.68% and respectively. Ethosomal formulation (F8) was found stable at 4 ± 2°C and at room temperature during the storage of 45 days. Efficient delivery of drug to deep skin strata from ethosomal drug application found to be highly beneficial in localizing the drug to desired site in the skin and reduced the side effects associated with conventional treatments.