Today there is a very great deal of interest among members of the global natural products community in investigating new plant constituents. Recent studies demonstrate that liquorice extracts are useful in the treatment of dermatitis, eczema, and psoriasis, with an efficacy comparable to that of corticosteroids. In this work, niosomes made up of surfactants (Tween 85 and Span 20) and cholesterol at various concentrations were prepared to investigate the potential application of niosomes for the delivery of ammonium glycyrrhizinate (AG), useful for the treatment of various inflammatory based diseases. Vesicles were characterized evaluating dimensions, ζ potential, anisotropy, drug entrapment efficiency, stability, cytotoxicity evaluation and skin tolerability. Release profiles of ammonium glycyrrhizinate/niosomes were evaluated in vitro using cellulose membranes. The best formulation was used to evaluate the in vitro/in vivo efficacy of the ammonium glycyrrhizinate/niosomes in murine and human models of inflammation. The AG-loaded non-ionic surfactant vesicles showed no toxicity, good skin tolerability and were able to improve the drug anti-inflammatory activity in mice. Furthermore, an improvement of the anti-inflammatory activity of the niosome delivered drug was observed on chemically induced skin erythema in humans.
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