Preparation And Evaluation Of Fluconazole Gels

Gels dosage forms are successfully used as drug delivery systems considering their ability to control drug release and to protect medicaments from a hostile environment. Thus, it was desired in this study to formulate fluconazole into a gel that could be used locally in the treatment of different skin fungal infections. Cellulose derivatives, chitosan and poloxamer-407 were used as the gelling agents. Different additives were used to enhance drug release from these preparations including PEG 400, glycerol, Tween 80 and Cetrimide. Different formulae were characterized in terms of spreadability, rheological properties and drug release. The formulae showing the best drug release were selected to study the effect of storage on various parameters over a period of 6 months and for microbiological evaluation. The best release enhancer was glycerol in the concentration of 10% and the formulae containing it were stable and proved to be effective in the inhibition of candidal growth in the in vitro microbiological evaluation. Egyptian Journal of Biomedical Sciences Vol. 23 (1) 2007: pp. 266-28