Formulation and Evaluation of Ethosomal Drug Delivery System of Clotrimazole using Poly Vinyl Alcohol Gel

Ethosomes have been studied as a possible carrier for topical delivery of clotrimazole, an anti-fungal agent. The presence of ethanol in the aqueous compartment of the ethosomal vesicles favoured the encapsulation and enhanced its permeation via the skin because of the synergistic effect of ethanol vesicles and skin lipids. The dimensions of clotrimazole ethosomes depends on the composition and in particular, the mean size 223.31 nm decreases with increasing ethanol concentration(30 ml). Ethosome size exhibited limited dependence on phospholipid concentration.The ethosomal formulations with high phospholipid concentration had high entrapment efficiency(71.48). Very high amount of ethanol content had a lowering effect on drug entrapment in vesicles. Clotrimazole ethosomes showed sustained release of drug from the formulations over a specified period of time. An ideal or best formulation of ethosome is said to be one which gives high entrapment efficiency (ETH6). In this study entrapment efficiency is found to be ehanol-phospholipid concentration ratio dependent. Zeta potential study proved that the above formulation have an excellent stability. By these facts study can be concluded by saying ethosomes formed from optimum phospholipid and ethanol ratio is a promising carrier to improve the bioavailability of clotrimazole even for an extended period of time. These findings are very encouraging and confirms that ethosomes are a very promising carrier for the topical administration of Clotrimazole.