Palm Oil Nanoemusion

INTRODUCTION

Palm oil is widely us as a cooking oil and also as a vegetable shortening. Palm oil is a

form of edible vegetable oil obtained from the fruit of Elaeis Guineensis. Currently,

Malaysia accounts for almost 50% of world palm oil production (Sarmidi et al., 2009).

Palm oil contains free fatty acids, sterols, tocopherols, hydrocarbons, pigments,

vitamins and many other components. Therefore, Palm oil has wide applications for

the production of high value products for pharmaceutical, food and chemical

industries (Sarmidi et al., 2009). There is a growing interest in replacing petroleum-

based ingredients with natural materials, such as long and medium chain triglycerides,

and alkyl esters because of their many advantages. Natural oils and their derivatives

are renewable, biodegradable, harmless to the environment, and less of an irritant to

the users (Hamilton, 1993; Leysen, 1992).

Palm oils are used as excipients in the formulation of cosmetics and

pharmaceuticals in the form of its oil or its derivatives. For example palm oil ester has

been used as as oil phase in the preparation of palm based nanoemulsion for topical

nanocosmeceutical (Teo et al., 2010) due to palm oil’s emollient effect which help to

maintain the desired smooth, soft and paliable structure texture of normal human skin.

By such means protection is provided against dryness and irritation (Kalustian 1985).

In 1993, Sharma and co-workers presented an invention which is directed to a novel

method and composition for enhancing the penetration of a drug through skin. The

invention is premised on the discovery that certain vegetable oils used individually or

in combination are effective in enhancing the penetration of pharmacologically active

agents through the skin.

Ketoprofen is a highly potent and safe nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drug of

the propionic acid derivative group and has been widely used in clinical practice for

the control of rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis (Kantor 1986). However, it

accompanies adverse side effects including gastrointestinal irritation when

administered orally. Since ketoprofen is usually given to patients over an extended

period, efforts to reduce its adverse side effects have been attempted. One promising

method is to administer the drug is via the skin. The transdermal route has been

recognized as one of the highly potential routes of systemic drug delivery and

provides the advantage of avoidance of the first-pass effect, ease of use and

withdrawal (in case of side effects), and better patient compliance. Ketoprofen is an

excellent candidate for transdermal delivery among various NSAIDs (Cordero et al.,

1977) and several transdermal delivery dosage forms containing ketoprofen have been

reported. For example transdermals patch (Kawamura et al., 2003) and gel (Mangione

et al., 2007). However, the major limitation of this route is the difficulty of permeation

of drug through the skin (Sinha & Kaul 2000).  The limitation lies in the barrier

properties of the stratum corneum (SC). An efficient method to circumvent the barrier

function of the skin is to select a penetration enhancer that will increase the

permeability of the SC (Gupta et al., 2005).

In this study, palm oil-based nanoemulsion was developed as a transdermal

delivery agent in attempt to improve and enhance the ketoprofen release

Nanoemulsion is chosen as the transdermal dosage form because it is a promising

novel dosage form in terms of controlling droplet size, relatively long-term stability

and powerful solubilization ability. Nano-emulsions are fine oil-in-water dispersions,

having droplet covering the size range of 100–600 nm (K. Bouchemal et al., 2004)

The aim of this study was to formulate the nanoemulsion containing

ketoprofen as a model drug and palm oil as the oil phase and evaluates the release and

transfer of ketoprofen by in vitro in Franz diffusion cells through methyl acetate

cellulose membrane. The results obtained could be used to predict the enhancing

effect of palm oil and the suitability of the dosage form formulated for transdermal

drug delivery.

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