Development, in-vitro characterization and ex-vivo permeation study of metronidazole loaded mucoadhesive ethosomal gel for the local treatment of oral cavity infection

The present study deals with the formulation, characterization of Metronidazole loaded ethosomal gel for treating oral infection.  The ethosomal system of Metronidazole comprises of 2-5% phospholipids, 20-50% ethanol, 10% of propylene glycol, 10% of cholesterol and 10% v/v aqueous phase. Cold method was applied to develop ethosome. The prepared Metronidazole loaded ethosome was evaluated for vesicle size, entrapment efficiency,The Optimized Ethosome formulation was converted in to ethosomal gel. The gel further evaluated for pH, Drug content, mucoadhesive strength and ex-vivo permeation study. The vesicle size of ethosome formulation MEF8 showed the lowest value of   324±1.32 µm. Formulation MEF8 showed the maximum entrapment efficiency of 86.11±0.11%. The mucoadhesive gel MEG8 formulated from optimized ethosome showed the maximum drug release 99.35% in 12 hr and ex-vivo oral mucosa permeation for MEG8 was found to be 1200µg/ml at 30minutes as compared to the pure drug