FORMULATION DEVELOPMENT AND CHARACTERIZATION OF CLOTRIMAZOLE GEL

Objective: Gel is one of the recent technologies in Novel DDS used for dual control release of emulsion and gel for topical use. Methods: The method used for preparation of micro emulsion w/o was water titration method with Liquid paraffin and propylene glycol as oil phase, Tween 80 and span 80 are used as a surfactant and its concentrations were fixed based on Pseudo ternary phase diagrams. The optimized emulsion formulation was incorporated into the gel matrix that is Carbopol-934, HPMC-5 and HPMC15+ Carbopol-934 by using various concentrations. Results: The prepared gel were characterized for drug content of gel for physical appearance, drug content, pH, viscosity, spreadability, extrudability and in vitro drug release studies. The optimized formulations showed F9 with 1:3 HPMC15+ Carbopol-934 formulations showed in vitro drug release of 97.82% at the end of 5 h. The optimized formulation showed good drug release within the specified limits. Conclusion: Clotrimazole was proven to be a suitable candidate for formulating gel for topical delivery to achieve better patient compliance. Keywords: Clotrimazole, Gel, Topical application, Carbopol-934, HPMC-5, HPMC15+ Carbopol-934, Liquid paraffin, Tween 80, Span 80 and Propylene glycol