FORMULATION AND EVALUATION OF NAIL LACQUER CONTAINING TIOCONAZOLE FOR TRANSUNGUAL DRUG DELIVERY SYSTEM

In this present work, a medicated antifungal nail lacquer of tioconazole had been developed. The main objective of nail lacquer formulation was to provide a sustained release of medicament over extended period of time and reduce the frequency of administration by improving patient compliance. Topical delivery of nail diseases is limited by the poor permeability nail plate. Only few permeation enhancers are used to enhance the permeation, such as thioglycolic acid and urea hydrogen peroxide act by reducing the disulphide bonds in nail plate. In- vitro permeation studies were carried out across human nail plate by Franz diffusion cell using phosphate buffer pH 7.4 as medium. The percentage cumulative drug released was determined by UV spectrophotometer. FTIR studies revealed that drug and all excipients are compatible. The % drug permeated at 8hr through the nail was 64.93for tioconazole with thioglycolic acid and urea H2O2 respectively. As can be seen, significantly higher permeation was achieved in the presence of thioglycolic acid. Topical delivery of nail diseases is limited by the poor permeability of the nail plate but few ungula enhancers increase the nail permeability of topically applied tioconazole drug by reducing the disulphide bonds in nail plate, such as thioglycolic acid and urea hydrogen peroxide. Key words: Nail lacquer, Tioconazole, Thioglycolic acid.