Microemulsions for Topical Drug Carrier: A Review

ABOUT AUTHOR
Dr. S.K. Prajapati, Shailendra Kumar, Ajit Singh*, Ankush Singh
Institute of Pharmacy, Bundelkhand University, Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh, India-284128
*E-mail: ajitpray@gmail.com

Abstract
Recent days microemulsion is a novel drug carrier system of oil, water and a surfactant with a co-surfactant. Microemulsions are monophasic, thermodynamically stable species with much smaller droplet diameter (20 to 200 nm) and thus are visually transparent or translucent and having ultra low interfacial tension. Microemulsion has low viscosity with Newtonian behaviour and is highly flexible. Microemulsion can be classified as oil-in-water (o/w), water-in-oil (w/o) or bicontinuous system depending on their structure. Microemulsion is easy to prepare and does not require maximum energy of formation. In the present study, we discuss about the various advantages of microemulsion in pharmaceuticals, along with the preparation, evaluation and research work carried out on microemulsions.
Key words: microemulsion, advantages of microemulsion, material and methods, topical delivery