DEVELOPMENT AND IN VITRO EVALUATION OF SELF EMULSIFYING FORMULATION FOR EMBELIN

The purpose of present work was to improve the oral bioavailability of embelin by formulating this hydrophobic phytoconstituent as self emulsifying drug delivery system (SEDDS). SEDDS improves the oral bioavailability by overcoming the dissolution step, enzymatic degradation and hepatic first pass metabolism of phytoconstituent. On the basis of solubility study of embelin, ethyl oleate, tween 80 and span 20 were selected as oil, surfactant and co surfactant respectively for the formulation. Phase diagram study revealed the ratio of surfactant and co surfactant (S_mix) for effective self emulsification. Prepared batches of formulation were evaluated for various physicochemical parameters which includes thermodynamic stability study,  emulsification time, morphology study of droplets, determination of zeta potential, viscosity determination, percentage drug content, long term stability study. Pharmacokinetic study of plain drug, marketed tablet and SEDDS of embelin was also done which includes in vitro drug release study which revealed that the pattern of drug release is almost uniform and constant moreover embelin SEDDS have highest percentage cumulative drug release (93%) as compared to the conventional dosage form tablet (47%) and plain drug (34%).