Development and in vitro evaluation of a transdermal hydrogel patch for ferulic acid

Current work aimed to develop and evaluate a transdermal delivery system of hydrogel patch for ferulic acid to treat skin damage induced by UV radiation. VISCOMATE(TM) NP700, dihydroxy aluminium aminoacetate, glycerine, tartaric acid were used in combination in different ratios to design the hydrogel patch. In vitro release rate was selected as an index to optimize the formulation. The formulated hydrogel patch was evaluated by several parameters like tacking strength, cohesive strength, peeling strength, residuals after peeling and drug content determination. The in vitro penetration was determined by Franz diffusion technology with hairless mouse skin as permeability media. Different kinetics models were employed to simulate the release and penetrate patterns of ferulic acid from patches in order to investigate the drug transport mechanism. The residual drugs in the patch and skin were determined after the penetration experiment. The optimized preparation was dihydroxy aluminium aminoacetate: NP700: glycerine: ferulic acid as a ratio of 0.02:0.4:1.5:1.25:0.25. The cumulative percentage of release was 60.4465±1.7679% for 24h, which results from a combination of diffusion effect and polymer erosion effect. For the barrier of stratum corneum, the cumulative penetrate rate was only 1.3156±0.3588% and the release mechanism turn out to be the effect of erosion of polymer surface. The residual drugs in the patch were 97.5949±1.4932%. The in vitro data revealed that it was easy for ferulic acid to release from the paste while difficult to permeate through the skin barrier, which resulted in most of drugs residued in the paste. Hence, further experiments will be necessary for finding the penetration enhancer in ferulic acid transdermal delivery.