چکیده (انگلیسی):

The influence of the vehicle on the release and permea-tion of fluconazole, a topical antifungal drug dissolved in Jojoba oil was evaluated. Series of Cutina lipogels (Cu-tina CPA [cetyl palmitate], CBS [mixture of glyceryl stearate, cetearyl alcohol, cetyl palmitate, and cocoglyc-erides], MD [glyceryl stearate], and GMS [glyceryl monostearate]) in different concentrations as well as gel microemulsion were prepared. In-vitro drug release in Sorensen's citrate buffer (pH 5.5) and permeation through the excised skin of hairless mice, using a modi-fied Franz diffusion cell, were performed. The rheological behavior and the apparent viscosity values for different gel bases were measured before and after storage un-der freezing conditions at -4 °C and were taken as measures for stability of network structure. Candida albi-cans was used as a model fungus to evaluate the anti-fungal activity of the best formula achieved. The results of in vitro drug release and its percutaneous absorption showed that the highest values from gel microemulsion were assured. The rheological behavior of the prepared systems showed pseudoplastic (shear-thinning) flow in-dicating structural breakdown of the existing intermo-lecular interactions between polymeric chains. Moreover, the stability study revealed no significant difference be-tween viscosity before and after storage for different formulae except for CPA Cutina lipogel (using analysis of variance [ANOVA] test at level of significance .05). The antifungal activity of fluconazole showed the widest zone of inhibition with gel microemulsion. The gel mi-croemulsion is an excellent vehicle for fluconazole topi-cal drug delivery.