Acceptance rate 46%
Time to first decision 6 months*
Time to decision with review 50 days*

*Approximate number of days

**The days mentioned above are averages and do not indicate exact durations. The process may vary for each article.


ACTA Pharmaceutica Sciencia 2024 , Vol 62 , Num 4
Preparation and evaluation of topical hydrogel containing ketoconazole-loaded bilosomes
Amer Sajjad KHUDHAIR 1 Lubna A. SABRI 2
1 Ministry of Health and Environment, Babylon Health Directorate, Babylon, Iraq
2 University of Baghdad, College of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmaceutics, Baghdad, Iraq
DOI : 10.23893/1307-2080.APS6250 Viewed : 163 - Downloaded : 48 Ketoconazole (KET) is an antifungal drug that was used for the first time as loaded bilosome that incorporated into Carbopol hydrogels to enhance topical skin application and improve therapeutic efficacy. KET-bilosome which contained span 60: cholesterol: SDC at milligrams weight (350:60:15) was prepared using ultra-sonication method. Then, the bilosome formulation was incorporated into the hydrogel of Carbopol 934 and 940 as a gelling agent. All hydrogels were evaluated for their physical appearance, pH, KET content, viscosity and in-vitro release. The optimum KET-bilosomal hydrogel was further evaluated for skin irritation test and antifungal activity. The optimized KET-bilosome loaded hydrogel (FKC934-1%) showed good viscosity, highest spreadability (11.5 ± 0.5 g.cm/sec), and acceptable pH (5.9 ± 0.1) and drug content (98.4 ± 0.5%). Ketoconazole-bilosomes loaded hydrogel was found to be safe and non-irritating when tested on a rat skin. It also exhibited the sustained release profile (82.16% at 8 hours) with a Korsmeyer?Peppas kinetic release model (R2 = 0.9967). FTIR study shows no important interaction between ketoconazole and the polymers used. The antifungal study revealed a significant (p<0.05) enhancement of antifungal activity against C. albicans compared to marketed ketoconazole cream. Keywords : ketoconazole, bilosome, hydrogel, antifungal activity, spreadability

Istanbul Medipol University