FORMULATION AND EVALUATION OF CLOTRIMAZOLE OINTMENT

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Pharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmacy, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt

2 Department of Dermatology, Faculty of Medicine, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt

Abstract

The in vitro release of clotrimazole from different ointment bases was studied. The bases tested were oleagenous, absorption, water-soluble, an O/W emulsion and a W/O emulsion ointment base. The release profile agreed with the first order mechanism. Among the tested bases, the water soluble base provided the best release rate.
Clotrimazole exhibited antimycotic effect against C. albicans. 'The data had confirmed the in-vitro release results and proved the superiority of the water soluble bases.
The clinical evaluation was performed on patients complaining of T. circinata. Three ointment formulations of different release pattern Viz; waters soluble, O/W emulsion and an oleagenous ointment each incorporating 1% clotrimazole, were selected to conduct the clinical test. Good efficacy was obtained with 1% clotrimazole in water soluble base composed of PEG 4000 and PEG 400 (4:6).