Abstract Acne is an inflammatory disease of sebaceous follicles of skin. The present study was conducted to formulate and evaluate the topical anti acne formulation of coriander oil and coriander aqueous extract with and without penetration enhancer. Then these formulations were compared with each other to establish the effect of penetration enhancer. The antibacterial activity of Coriander oil and aqueous extract against Propionibacterium acne (P.acne) and Staphylococcus epidermidis (S.epidermidis) was investigated by disc diffusion method and Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) by agar dilution method. The topical formulations were developed separately without penetration enhancer (menthol) and further two formulations were developed separately with penetration enhancer. These formulations were subjected to the drug content uniformity, invitro diffusion and skin permeation studies. The results showed that coriander oil possesses greater potency as compared to the aqueous extract as the MIC values of 1%v/v and 1.1%v/v were obtained for oil against P.acne and S. epidermidis respectively. The incorporation of penetration enhancer resulted in the formulations with increased drug content, invitro release and permeation. The statistical analysis showed that menthol incorporation led to the significant increase in the permeation of both types of formulations. All the formulations followed the first order release and higuchi model was found to be the most suitable one.
