Formulation and Evaluation of Nanoemulsion Based Hydrogel Using Erythromycin for Bacterial Infectionss

Aim The present study aimed to develop a nanoemulsion based hydrogel formulation of erythromycin ERY a macrolide antibiotic used to treat various bacterial infections to address its low aqueous solubility and instability in acidic conditions.Methods The pseudo-ternary phase diagrams were constructed using tea tree oil Tween 80 ethanol and water. Ethanol and Tween 80 were mixed in 31 ratio to achieve the highest isotropic area and produce nanoemulsions. Central composite design was used for optimising the nanoemulsion which generated 11 formulas.Results Formulation E7 exhibited a desired globule size of 13.61 nm a polydispersity index of 0.168 drug content of 98.8plusmn0.75 drug release of 74.17plusmn1.18 at the end of 24 hours a zeta potential of 45.6mV and a viscosity of 216.5plusmn0.20 cP. Thus formulation E7 was considered as the optimized formula and was incorporated into the Carbopol gel base 1 1.5 2 to obtain erythromycin nanoemulgel E7F1 E7F2 E7F3. Among the three formulations E7F1 showed better results with a drug content of 98.6plusmn0.63 and a drug release of 72.02plusmn0.33 at the end of 24 hours. The results of the antimicrobial study demonstrated that erythromycin nanoemulsion E7 has potent antimicrobial activity against both Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus.Conclusion The erythromycin nanoemulsion-based hydrogel offers greater therapeutic efficacy with reduced adverse effects and sustained drug release.