Abstract

Niosomes are promising vehicle for drug delivery and being nonionic, it is less toxic and improves the therapeutic index of drug by restricting its action to target cells. Hence, in present study salbutamol sulphate was encapsulated in niosomes using non- ionic surfactants like span 40, span 60 and span 80. The preparation of niosomes was done by Thin film Hydration Technique using Rotary flash evaporator. The formulated niosomes were characterized for optical microscopy, SEM, particle size distribution, entrapment efficiency, in-vitro drug release, sterility test, stability studies was compared . The formulated niosomes were viewed through optical microscope. Less spherical vesicles are formed in F-I containing span 40. Numerous spherical vesicles are formed in F-II containing span 60. F-III containing span 80 showed more spherical vesicles than F-I but less than that of F-II. Microscopic examination revealed that the vesicle diameter complies within the niosomal size range of 100-300nm. The average mean particle size range was 100nm, 270 nm and 200nm for F-I, F-II and F-III respectively, revealed that the mean particle size of all the three formulations complies within the niosomal size range of 100-300nm. The entrapment efficiency of drug in F II containing span 60 was found to be 76.61% which showed maximum percent drug entrapment where as those containing span 40 and span 80 (F-I and F-III) was found to encapsulate 58.53% and 66.42% respectively. Niosomes were subjected to in vitro drug release using 0.1N HCl as the medium in sigma dialysis membrane. These results showed that niosomal salbutamol sulphate has sustained release upto 20 hours whereas free salbutamol sulphate was released within 2.5 hours. This is because the drug is released slowly for a prolonged period of time in niosomal salbutamol sulphate. Also, F-II containing span 60 showed higher release when compared to F-I containing span 40 and F-III containing span 80.Therefore, F-II is selected for further studies like sterility test, stability studies and pharmacological studies.The stability studies was performed by testing drug leakage from the niosomal formulation were analysed in terms of percent drug retained at the end of every month. Storage under refrigerated condition showed greater stability with 93.12% of drug content at the end of 3 months whereas storage under room temperature and at 400C ± 20C R-H 70 % ± 5% showed drug content of 88.92% and 81.26% at the end of three months

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