In Vitro Release Study of Celecoxib‐Loaded Fractionated Medium Chain Triglycerides Nanoemulgel Formulation for Enhanced Transdermal Delivery

ABSTRACT Celecoxib (CXB) is a lipophilic drug classified as a Biopharmaceutical Classification System (BCS) Class II compound, characterized by poor aqueous solubility and low oral bioavailability, which hinders its ability to penetrate through the stratum corneum. To address these concerns, nanoemulgel (NEG) has emerged as a promising carrier for enhancing transdermal delivery of lipophilic drugs. This study aimed to develop, characterize, and investigate the release profile of the CXB‐loaded NEG incorporating fractionated medium chain triglycerides (FMCTs) as the carrier oil, which mainly contains caprylic and capric acids, which are known for their superior solubilizing capacity and skin penetration enhancement. Herein, the CXB‐loaded nanoemulsion (NE) was prepared with a combination of oil, surfactants and water using the spontaneous emulsification method. The resulting CXB‐NE was then characterized according to its particle size, polydispersity index, zeta potential to evaluate its physicochemical properties. The optimized formulation was incorporated with Carbopol 940 gel to develop CXB‐NEG, which was evaluated for in vitro release study. The results showed that CXB‐NEG F1 formulated with a blend of MCT and PKOlein demonstrated a smaller particle size (146.80 nm) compared to CXB‐NEG F2 containing MCT alone (161.90 nm). Both formulations exhibited good stability with PDI less than 0.30 and zeta potential exceeding −30 mV. Notably, CXB release from NEG‐F1 was approximately 10‐fold higher (50.35%) than the release from conventional gel (5.03%), followed by NEG‐F2 with 42.60% release. These findings suggested that incorporating a blend of MCT and PKOlein in CXB‐NEG F1 enhances particle size reduction, stability, and drug release performance. These enhancements improve skin permeation, supporting the formulation's suitability for transdermal delivery and indicating the effectiveness of FMCTs as permeation enhancers.