Phytopharmaceutical Delivery of Rubia Cordifolia Herbosomal Gel Through Skin-Formulation, Characterization, and Quality Assessment

Abstract

Background: The novel herbosomal technology helps to enhance the bioactivity and targeting of plant extracts to the skin and connect the NDDS system and the traditional system. Herbosome is a kind of phospholipid-based herbal nano drug delivery system with enhancement of absorption and stability profile. In this work, we have developed and designed herbosomal gel containing Rubia cordifolia (RC) extract (Manjistha) with more disintegration and dissolution, and extended release.

 Methods: RC (Manjistha) is a traditional medicine, soluble in water but poor absorption is the main limitation, which reduces its bioavailability and efficacy.  RC extract herbosomes were successfully developed using Phosphatidylcholine and Soyalecithine using the solvent evaporation method. Carbopol 940 was found to be best gelling agent for the preparation of gel. Evaluation studies were carried out in extract and gel formulations like Entrapment or absorption efficiency, drug content, spreadability, pH, and viscosity.

Results: The optimized batch of Rubia cordifolia shows the lowest particle size of 98.7nm, the highest drug loading of 98.62%, and the highest Entrapment efficiency of 98.12%, No drug-excipient interaction was observed in FTIR. Percent cumulative release of herbosome showed release (78.23 ± 0.045% in 8 h) in pH 7.4 phosphate buffer. Herbosomal gel with 1.5% Carbopol 940 showed good consistency, viscosity, and spreadability, and the pH found was 6.39 ± 0.03. Gel remained stable at 25 °C for a week of study.

 Conclusion: From the overall, experimental data. It has been suggested that RC-Herbosomal gel developed with the phospholipid-coated vesicular system can be considered a promising and targeted delivery system to enhance the solubility and permeability of the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Phospholipid also protects the drug from degradation from P-glycoprotein, cytochrome P-450, and cytochrome 3A4. Protection from these enzymes enhances bioavailability and thus absorption.