STATISTICAL OPTIMIZATION OF HERBAL CREAM CONTAINING WOUND HEALING AND ANTIFUNGAL AGENTS

Bhavana Patil, Dr. Padmanabh Deshpande* and Mangesh Bhalekar

ABSTRACT

Different fungi are always present on surface of the skin. Infection occurs when these organisms enter into body. Fungal infection is a very common ailment of day to day life. Wound refers to a sharp injury which damages the dermis of skin. Microbes i.e. bacteria or fungi are found on wounds. Alkaline wound fluid will promote growth of both bacteria and fungi. The aim of the research is to formulate a cream which treats fungal infection as well as heal wounds which occur due to intense scratching and itching. Conventional therapy shows varied side effects and thus it is need of hour to find an alternative therapy. Herbal therapy is the best option here. Thus, the present study focuses on preparation of methanolic extract and herbal oil and formulating it in a patient friendly formulation i.e. Cream. The cream was formulated and optimized by using 32 factorial design with concentration of stearic acid and tween 80: span 20 as factors and viscosity, spreadability and drug release as responses. The cream with 4% tween 80: span 20 and 2 gram stearic acid was considered as optimized. The optimized cream showed maximum drug release through drug (karanj oil) present in oil phase and cream was found to give good results.

Keywords: Karanjin, Rhein, Antifungal and Wound Healing Activity.