Formulation development and evaluation of Indomethacin emulgel

The purpose of the present study was to develop and optimize the emulgel system for IND (Indomethacin), using 2 types of gelling agents: Carbopol 934 and Xanthan Gum. The prepared emulgels were evaluated in terms of appearance, pH, spreadability, viscosity, drug content and in-vitro drug release. In-vitro release study demonstrated diffusion controlled release of IND from formulation up to 12 hours. The drug release profile exhibited zero order kinetics. All the prepared emulgels showed acceptable physical properties concerning colour, homogeneity, consistency, spreadability, pH value, and with higher drug release than conventional gel as per USP. The emulgel was optimized using a two factor, two-level factorial design. Influence of type of gelling agent was also investigated. Mathematical equations and response surface plots were used to relate the dependent and independent variables. Each formulation was optimized from carbopol 934 based & from xanthan gum based formulations using contour plot and response surface plot. The optimized formulations were found to be C3 and G3 containing lower concentration of light liquid paraffin and higher concentration of emulsifiers. The optimized formulae were evaluated for Anti-inflammatory activity, skin permeation and stability for 3 months. In case of all evaluation parameters Xanthan gum based formulation showed better properties so, As a general conclusion, it was suggested that the IND emulgel formulation prepared with Xanthan Gum having the oil phase concentration in its low level and emulsifying agent concentration in its high level was the formula of choice