Title:<I>Grewia asiatica</I> Mucilage: A Smart Gelling Polymeric Material for Pharmaceutical Applications <i>In Vitro</i> Studies
VOLUME: 12 ISSUE: 2
Author(s):Nitin Gupta, Giriraj T. Kulkarni*, Pravin Kumar and Rajendra Awasthi
Affiliation:Department of Pharmaceutics, Laureate Institute of Pharmacy, Kathog, Dehra 177101, Amity Institute of Pharmacy, Amity University Uttar Pradesh, Sector 125, Noida 201303, Uttar Pradesh, Department of Pharmaceutics, Laureate Institute of Pharmacy, Kathog, Dehra 177101, Amity Institute of Pharmacy, Amity University Uttar Pradesh, Sector 125, Noida 201303, Uttar Pradesh
Keywords:Grewia asiatica, mucilage, pharmaceutical excipient, korsmeyer’s-peppa’s model, similarity factor, dissimilarity
factor, skin irritation, spreadability.
Abstract:
Background: Natural plant-based materials have several advantages. They are biodegradable,
biocompatible, non-toxic, cost-effective, environment friendly, easily available, and can undergo
chemical modification.
Objective: Grewia asiatica extracts contain various phytoconstituents and have therapeutic benefits
such as antimicrobial and anti-diabetic properties. They form colloidal dispersions and make a highly
viscous gel in water. Considering these properties of Grewia asiatica mucilage, the present work was
aimed to investigate its application in the formulation of gel for the topical delivery of diclofenac sodium.
Methods: Gel formulations were prepared with and without penetration enhancers using 1% w/w diclofenac
sodium as a model drug. The formulations were subjected to different evaluation tests like
physical characterization, pH, spreadability, skin irritation, gel retrogradation, drug content and in vitro
drug diffusion. The in vitro diffusion of the drug from different formulations was compared with the in
vitro drug release profile of the marketed formulation (Omni gel, Cipla, India). To assess the release
mechanism, the in vitro release data was analyzed using Korsmeyers-Peppas’ equation.
Results: The mucilage showed good gelling behavior in 5.50, 5.75, 6.00, 6.25 and 6.50% concentrations.
All the formulations followed the anomalous transport mechanism of drug release. The formulation
BP3 showed 90% of drug release after 5.2h of dissolution study, which was similar to the marketed
formulation. Hence, formulation BP3 was ideal among all the formulations.
Conclusion: It might be concluded that, the Grewia asiatica mucilage may be used as a natural polymeric
material for gel formulation.
