ABSTRACT:
The present study was aimed of design and evaluation of bigel containing flurbiprofen. Bigels are interesting innovative two phase systems that have been recently proposed as structured system for delivery of active ingredients. They possess the advantages of both hydrogel and organogel. Organogel was prepared by pluronic lecithin and hydrogel was prepared using HPMC. Bigels were prepared by mixing of organogel and hydrogel in appropriate ratio. Organogel and hydrogel was evaluated for pH, viscosity, extrudability and spreadabilty. Formulation F3 from organogel and formulation H3 from hydrogel was selected as optimized formulations and was used for the preparation of bigel. The prepared bigel was evaluated for pH, viscosity, extrudability, spread ability, in vitro drug release studies, ex vivo permeation studies, stability studies and skin irritation test. All formulations of bigel showed extended release out of which formulation B3 was selected as the optimized formulation on the basis of evaluation parameters. In vitro permeation release was found to be 89.99% at the end of 8 hrs. The release kinetics of flurbiprofen bigel followed Higuchi model. The bigels were found to be stable and skin irritation studies on Wistar rats showed that the prepared bigels were compatible. Based on the encouraging results bigels containing flurbiprofen can be used as extended release system.