Abstract

The main objective of the present study was to formulate and evaluate Ethosomes containing Carvedilol for treatment of hypertension by better penetration of drug through the skin and to increase bioavailability of the drug by circumvent first pass metabolism.Transdermal delivery is important because it is a noninvasive procedure for drug delivery. To overcome the stratum corneum barrier, various mechanisms have been investigated, including use of chemical or physical enhancers such as iontophoresis, sonophoresis, etc. Liposomes, niosomes, transferosomes and ethosomes also have the potential of overcoming the skin barrier and have been reported to enhance permeability of drug through the stratum corneum barrier. Ethosomes are able to improve skin delivery of drugs both under occlusive and non-occlusive Conditions over liposomes. Developed ethosomes of Carvedilol were evaluated for the parameters such as vesicle size and shape, entrapment efficiency and diffusion studies. From among all the developed formulations, E5 showed better entrapment efficiency i.e., 97.45 and drug diffusion for a period of 24 hr was found to be 97.61 which also has smaller vesicle size. Therefore, it was selected as the best formulation. Thus it concluded that ethosomes is a very promising carrier for transdermal delivery and creating a new opportunities for topical application of carvediolol in the treatment of hypertension and this can be furtherly formulated in the form of gels, creams or patches.