Applications of Organogels in Pharmaceuticals

Abstract

Organogels are emerging as novel drug carrier systems for drug molecules with diverse physico-chemical properties and macromolecules like proteins and peptides. These are basically gels in which the continous or macroscopic phase is composed of biocompatible organic solvents (isopropyl myristate, isopropyl palmitate, etc.). Biocompatible solvents meaning are those that are non-toxic and safe to the mucosal membranes. The present review describes reflects the structure, mechanism of formation and gelation process of organogels. Most of the organogels in pharmaceuticals are lecithin, gelatin or sorbitan ester based

systems. These exhibit pharmaceutically useful properties like thermoreversibility, ability to incorporate all types of drug molecules, improved and controlled drug release, increased resistance to microbial contamination and reduced risk of irritation. The concept of drug delivery through organogel-based systems has been studied extensively for various routes of drug administration, viz. transdermal, rectal, ophthalmic and carriers for vaccines. Of all these, lot of work has been done on their use for transdermal route of administration using various systems. The drug release from most of the organogel systems is controlled by

simple diffusion process. However, not much work has been done on the usefulness of these systems for the other routes of administration and their potential for these remains to be uncovered.