FORMULATION AND EVALUATION OF HYDROGEL BASED TOPICAL DELIVERY OF BAEL (Aegle marmelos) FRUIT EXTRACT FOR WOUND HEALING
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.48047/Keywords:
Aegle marmelos, hydrogel, release kinetics, wound healing, anti-oxidant activity, free radical scavenging activityAbstract
Wounds are physical injuries that cause the skin to open or break, or a break in the epithelial integrity of the
skin, as well as disturbance of the structure and function of underlying normal tissue. Medicinal plants play
indispensable roles to treat various ailments. In the current research bael fruit extract hydrogel was prepared and
optimized with the aim to reach effective concentration at wound site and make it an effective drug delivery
system in the wound care. The hydrogel was developed by co-polymeric dispersion method. The prepared
hydrogel of different polymeric ratio were evaluated for various parameters. The ideal formulation batch was
selected for ex vivo skin permeation studies using Albino Wister rat skin. The formulated hydrogel was found to
be brownish translucent in nature. The solubility of extract was 850, 80.18 and 70.75 mg/ml in water, methanol
and hydro alcoholic solvent respectively. 3.296 was the partition coefficient of the extract determined using noctanol-water. FTIR studies revealed that there was no possible interaction between the extract and the polymer.
The drug content of the hydrogel ranged from 89.66% - 90.32%. The viscosity of the formulation was found to
be in the range of 7573 to 18342 cps. The pH was found to be varying between 3.362 and 5.4, which was
suitable for the application of skin. The swelling ratio was maximum for 60 min. The ex vivo permeation of
extract from the hydrogel (F6) was found to be 72.64 % at the end of 24 hrs. Release kinetics of formulated
hydrogel exhibited non fickian /anomalous diffusion. F6 formulation significantly increased wound contraction
rate compared to the negative control group and control group (P < 0.05). From the results obtained it can be
concluded that, bael fruit extract based hydrogel can be considered for the attenuation of wound healing in gram
positive bacteria due to its free radical scavenging and anti-oxidant activity.
