FORMULATION AND EVALUATION OF CUBOSOMAL GEL FOR TOPICAL APPLICATION

The present research aims to develop a transdermal Cubosomal gel formulation of Indomethacin, which would attenuate the gastrointestinal toxicities associated with oral administration and also aimed to encapsulate high drug pay load in Cubosomes for improved therapeutic efficiency. Indomethacin is an NSAID commonly recommended for the relief of pain and inflammation. Indomethacin was formulated as Cubosome to avoid the gastric irritaion. Top- down techniques were used for the preparation of cubosomes. Different formulations (F1-F6) were prepared and optimized for better performance in terms of drug content, SEM analysis, Zeta potential, entrapment efficiency and drug release. Then it is formulated into gel using carbopol as gel base. The physical parameters like appearance, pH, viscosity, spreadability, extrudability, ex-vivo drug release and in-vitro skin irritation test using HET- CAM were also evaluated. The cubosomal gel formulation (F5) was found to be clear without any aggregate indicating excellent homogeneity. The ex-vivo drug release study shows that the formulation (F5) has a good release rate. The kinetic study of the optimized formulation (F5) was also carried out and found that the formulation undergoes zero order kinetics. The mechanism of drug release was found to be Higuchi model.