TOPICAL EMULGEL OF TOLNAFTATE WITH PENETRATION ENHANCER: DEVELOPMENT, CHARACTERISATION AND ANTIFUNGAL ACTIVITY

Tolnaftate, an antifungal agent, has poor solubility and scarce permeability. The main objective of the study was to formulate and evaluate emulgel of Tolnaftate for improved topical drug delivery. Emulgel was formulated by preparing Tolnaftate emulsion and incorporated into Carbopol-940 gel base with two different penetration enhancers i.e Eucalyptus oil (EO) and Transcutol at concentration of 1%, 3% and 5% w/w separately.  The formulations were evaluated for physic-chemical properties, in vitro drug release, ex vivo diffusion studies and antifungal activity against Candida albicans. The satisfactory physicochemical parameters were exhibited by optimised emulgel formulation containing 5 % EO (Batch-F7). Further, it showed 88.09% ± 0.24 in vitro drug release and 74.87% ± 0.73 ex vivo diffusion at the end of 8 hours which were considerably higher than emulgel without penetration enhancer.  When assessed for antifungal activity, the zone of inhibition of Batch-F7 was significantly improved as compared to pure drug, emulgel without EO.  This may be attributed to increased penetration of emulgel in fungi cells in presence of EO which translated into efficient antifungal activity. Therefore, it can be concluded that Tolnaftate emulgel was successfully prepared with simple and commercially feasible manufacturing process and can serve as potential topical delivery of Tolnaftate.