Development of Ethosomal Gel Loaded with Terminalia chebula for Effective Treatment of Arthritis

Oral route is the most common route of drug delivery, which has many advantages such as easy delivery, but also has disadvantages such as poor bioavailability, a tendency to generate rapid blood level spikes, necessitating higher doses or recurrent dosing, which is difficult for the patient, and high cost. With all of these disadvantages in mind, there is a need for novel drug delivery with improved therapeutic efficacy and safety through targeted delivery, so that the size and number of doses can be diminished. This can be accomplished through transdermal delivery, which has several advantages such as avoiding first pass metabolism, eliminating GI irritation, reducing frequency of dosing, and terminating drug action quickly, etc. The well-known property of ethosomes i.e its faster rate of drug delivery makes it a suitable choice for targeted drug delivery formulations for several types of chronic inflammatory disorders where rationale of therapy turns lethal on longer course of continuation or during relapse of the illness. To minimize the toxicity or sub-therapeutic effect of Terminalia chebula and conversely to potentiate its intended use in arthritis, transdermal formulation with ethosomes might contribute a significance in its therapeutic stability.

Dried fruits of Terminalia chebula was extracted and preliminary phytochemical evaluation was performed. Soya lecithin was used to prepare ethosome using a cold method. Ethosomal gel was prepared by using carbopol as gelling agent and was evaluated.

The pharmaceutical properties of the prepared gel were evaluated and found to be satisfactory. In comparison to the gel with extract, the invitro drug diffusion of ethosomal gel showed better release. Invitro anti-arthritic activity was significantly higher than that of standard diclofenac.

In light of the aforementioned considerations, the goal of the current study was to create a natural drug-loaded ethosomal gel for transdermal drug delivery, enhancing drug permeation compared to conventional dosage forms.