Effects Of Transdermal Enhancers On Transdermal Absorption Of Propranolol Chloride

Transdermal therapy has many advantages when compared with traditional drug delivery because of its benefits. It can provide steady-state plasma level of drug and long-term therapy from a single dose, avoid the hepatic first-pass metabolism associated with oral administration, and allow easy termination of drug input. It is desirable that the transdermal rate of drug molecules is large enough to have therapy effect. In this paper, the effects of several transdermal enhancers including azone, propylene glycol and oleic acid on the transdermal absorption of propranolol chloride through a rat's skin in vitro are studied. The following are the conclusions.1. Both azone and oleic acid can promote the transdermal absorption of propranolol chloride through a rat's skin in vitro, but propylene glycol can't.2. Azone shows the most promotive effect on the transdermal absorption of propranolol chloride when its concentration is 4%~5%.3. The concentration of oleic acid will increase the transdermal rate of propranolol chloride when it is 1%~5%.4. Higher concentration of propylene glycol will decrease the transdermal rate of propranolol chloride.5. The compound transdermal enhancers of azone and propylene glycol have no excellent synergism on the transdermal absorption of propranolol chloride.6. The compound transdermal enhancers of oleic acid and propylene glycol have no excellent synergism on the transdermal absorption of propranolol chloride.7. The compound transdermal enhancers of azone and oleic acid has greater promotion effects on the transdermal absorption of propranolol chloride than any single one of them when azone is 1%. However, they have no excellent synergism on the transdermal absorption of propranolol chloride when azone is 5%.8. The calculated cumulative transdermal amount of propranolol chloride from the artificial neural networks is in good accordance with the respective experimental one.The above results are helpful to understanding the transdermal behavior of propranolol chloride with the effects of the transdermal enhancers, and selecting suitable transdermal enhancers in the design of transdermal system. The artificial neural networks method is successfully used to calculate the cumulative transdermal amount of propranolol chloride and it is verified to be a useful statistical method in the study of transdermal enhancers.