The Use of Liquid Self-Microemulsifying Drug Delivery Systems Based on Peanut Oil/Tween 80 in the Delivery of Griseofulvin

Abstract

Peanut oil and Tween 80 blends devoid of any cosurfactant were employed in the formulation of different batches of liquid self-microemulsifying drug delivery systems (LSMEDDS) and their suitability as vehicles for the delivery of a typical lipophilic drug—griseofulvin—was investigated. The LSMEDDS were evaluated using the following parameters: phase separation, globule size, viscosity, solubility of griseofulvin, and partition coefficient. The release profile of griseofulvin from the optimized LSMEDDS was evaluated in citrate/phosphate buffer solutions of pH 2.0, pH 6.5, and pH 7.4. The results obtained indicated that there was significantly higher (α ≤ 0.05) percentage cumulative amounts of griseofulvin released from the LSMEDDS in comparison with that released from peanut oil alone. The release of griseofulvin from the LSMEDDS into aqueous media of pH 6.5 and pH 7.4 showed enhanced and controlled dissolution of the drug from the formulation. Incorporation of griseofulvin into this proposed formulation is suggested as a strategy to overcome the irregular dissolution and absorption behaviors often associated with conventional griseofulvin tablets.

Keywords:

• liquid self-microemulsifying drug delivery system
• peanut oil
• Tween 80
• griseofulvin
• release profile