Original Research Article (Experimental): Design and Development of Unani Emulgel for Vitiligo

Vitiligo is not only a cosmetic problem, but also a social and psychological problem worldwide with the prevalence rate being highest in India. Treatment is unsatisfactory in Western System of Medicine. Unani System of Medicine (USM) possesses various drugs to treat vitiligo in both topical and oral dosage forms. Safoof-e-Bars (SB) is an important powdered dosage form used widely to treat vitiligo, internally as Zulal. Externally as Sufl (Sediment remained after decanting the soaked drug) is used. Babchi, a component of SB, is reported to contain psoralen, an important therapeutically active compounds for treating vitiligo. But as Psoralen - the active marker compound is very slightly soluble in water, so only negligible amount of it comes in zulal and most of the amount remains in sufl. That might be the reason for local application of sufl as recommended by Hakeems. But clinically it is observed that application of sufl is not followed by most of the patients, due to side effects associated with its application on skin.

The present study is designed to convert Safoof-e-Bars into a more convenient and appealing newly evolved dosage form 'emulgel' of same composition as of SB, so that it can be used by the patients easily without any side effects.

Various batches of emulgel were prepared as preliminary batches and final batches using hydro-alcoholic extract of SB and different excipients in different concentrations. Preliminary batches were formed for selecting composition and concentration of extract and excipients for final batches. Total eight batches (F1F8) were prepared as final batches. Among these eight batches, batch F7 was selected as final batch, which was further evaluated on various parameters. Comparative quantitative analysis was done in Zulal, Hydro-alcoholic extract of SB and emulgel using HPLC.

Optimized emulgel showed good result in physicochemical parameters. Highest percentage of psoralen was found in SB extract while lowest percentage was found in zulal. No growth of yeast and mould, and viable aerobic were found in emulgel on microbiological analysis. Emulgel was found to be stable for 3 months.

Newly developed emulgel may be recommended with zulal instead of traditionally used sufl with zulal. In future emulgel will provide a solution for topical delivery of hydrophobic drugs and more convenient dosage form to apply locally.