Abstract:

Microemulsion has grabbed a lot of attention in the last few decades as a unique candidate for drug delivery owing to its low viscosity, limpidness, ease of preparation, and good thermodynamic stability. The potential to incorporate drugs from unlike lipophilicity and its spontaneous formation makes it a suitable candidate for pharmaceutical application. The objective of the current study is to enhance the solubility of Fluconazole, an antifungal drug by formulating a microemulsion made up of cardamom oil, tween 20, and water (5:15:80). The formulations were checked for their physiochemical properties and thermodynamic stability. An antimicrobial activity like zone of inhibition, minimum inhibitory concentration and kill kinetics assay for optimized formulations were checked against C. albicans. The droplet size of the system and FLZ loaded microemulsion was found to be 7.8 and 8.6nm respectively. In vitro drug release from optimized microemulsion formulation showed efficient release (78.45%) compared to the bulk API (7.98%) in simulated intestinal fluid. The cytoplasmic release for CDMM FLZ ME at 0.5X, 1X and 5X was 43.24%, 82.11%, 91.73% respectively. In vitro toxicity demonstrated a lower toxicity rate with lower surfactant concentration against human lymphocytes and its safer usage. SEM analysis depicts the morphological distortion in C. albicans that occurred due to the interaction with microemulsion. The results indicate cardamom oil-based microemulsion is an efficient drug delivery vehicle intended for oral usage.

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