Development and Evaluation of Microemulsion Formualatons of Valsartan for Solubility Enhancement

Abstract

Microemulsions have attracted considerable amount of interest as potential drug delivery vehicles largely due to their simple method of preparation, stability and their abilities to incorporate a wide range of drugs of varying solubility. O/W microemulsion is expected to increase the solubility by dissolving low water solubility compounds into its dispersed phase and to enhance the oral bioavailability by protecting the drug increasing the rate of absorption and wettability due to surfactants induced permeability changes and smaller droplet size (< 100 nm) and most importantly able to target lymphatic system.  In the present study, the drug delivery system contains Valsartan, a hydrophilic component, a lipophillic component, surfactants and co-surfactants. The objective is to provide an increased release of valsartan and increased bioavailability of valsartan. Prepared microemulsion formulations by phase-titration method were evaluated for viscosity, drug content, thermodynamic stability studies and in-vitro dissolution. Resultant microemulsion optimized formulation (ME5) shows drug release (88.2±0.16%.%). Hence, micro-emulsion of valsartan was successfully developed and evaluated. Keywords: Microemulsion, Valsartan, solubility, evaluation.