DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION ON TRANSDERMAL DELIVERY OF ENOXACIN VIA CHEMICAL ENHANCERS AND PHYSICAL IONTOPHORESIS

Iontophoresis and enhancers were performed to enhance percutaneous abs orption of enoxacin so as to compare the enhancement between these two enhancing methods. The cationic surfactant of benzalkonium chloride s howed the highest enhancing activity for enoxacin for all pH values of buffer vehicles. The enhancement factor of sodium laurylsulfate showe d a dose-dependent property between the range of 0.1% to 3.0% concentr ation. Nonionic surfactant of Polysorbate 80 did not exhibit any enhan cing effect on the percutaneous absorption of enoxacin. The highest en hancement factor of iontophoretic delivery was observed at pH 5.0 solu tion of anodal iontophoresis for cationic enoxacin. The cathodal ionto phoresis of negative molecules and anodal iontophoresis of neutral mol ecules showed lower enhancing effect for enoxacin. The fact that the s kin residuals of enoxacin after iontophoresis showed both tremendous a nd current density-dependent amounts for cationic enoxacin suggested l ocal skin and soft tissue infections might be treated by this physical enhancement method. Combination of benzalkonium chloride and iontopho resis exerted a synergistic effect for anionic enoxacin in pH 10.0, wh ich was possibly due to the shielding of negative charge in skin and t he water molecules carried by chloride. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.