Preparation And Characterization of Aloe Vera Based Curcumin Loaded Nanoemulgel for Wound Healing Activity

Abstract

Hydrogels system being a drug delivery system has great significance particularly for topical application in cutaneous open wound. The specific physicochemical properties such as non-adhesiveness, moisture retention, and exudates absorption and gas permeability make them ideal as a drug delivery vehicle for wound healing treatment. Further, curcumin (a natural bioactive compound) was selected as a therapeutic agent to incorporate into the hydrogel system to design and develop nanoemulgel for wound healing. Although, curcumin possess remarkable anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and anti-infective activity along with hastening the healing process by acting over the different stages of the wound healing process, but its poor biopharmaceutical (low aqueous solubility and skin penetrability) attributes hamper their therapeutic efficacy for skin applications. The current research study aimed to develop the AL-CUR-NEG formulation system and evaluated to check the improvement in the therapeutic efficacy of curcumin through a nanomedicine-based approach for wound healing activity in albino wistar rats. The curcumin was enclosed inside the nanoemulsion system prepared through a high-energy ultrasonic emulsification technique at using minimum concentration of surfactant required to nanoemulsify the curcumin-loaded oil system  having droplet size 385.9nm. The optimized curcumin loaded nanoemulsion was incorporated into aloe vera hydrogel system for topical application. The developed curcumin nanoemulgel exhibited thixotropic rheological behavior and spreadability coefficient a significant (p<0.05) increase in skin penetrability characteristics compared to curcumin dispersed in marketed formulation system. Further signify the role of the AL-CUR-NEG formulation in in-vivo wound healing efficacy study.