Abstract:
Zingeber officinale (ginger) has been used for a long time in conventional medicine for the management of
many diseases most important of which is inflammatory diseases. The aim of this study was formulation of topical
microemulsion system to enhance the solubility, stability and release profile of ginger extract, as it is unstable in the
presence of light, air, heat and long term storage. The solubility of ginger extract in different oils, surfactants, and cosurfactants was determined in order to find the optimal components for microemulsion. Isopropyl myristate (IPM) was
selected as oil phase, tween 80 and PEG 400 were selected as surfactant and co-surfactant respectively based on highest
solubility values. Pseudo-ternary phase diagram was constructed in order to find out the microemulsion region. The
prepared microemulsions were evaluated for pH, viscosity, conductivity, refractive index, globular size, zeta potential,
polydispersity index, ginger extract content, in-vitro and ex-vivo release profiles. The formulation GE1 showed best
physicochemical properties with smallest globular size (19.75nm), highest release rate and flux value. It also showed
significant (p<0.05) anti-inflammatory effect as compared to reference piroxicam drug solution. It is concluded that
ginger extract can be used to develop stable microemulsion system with better skin permeation and promising antiinflammatory activity.
