The Release of Perillyl Alcohol from the Different Kind of Vehicles

Abstract

Background: Skin cancers are the most common malignancy in humans, and the number of cases has increased dramatically in the past few decades. Therefore, it is very important to carry out studies concerning new and safer anticancer natural agents (e.g. perillyl alcohol) and modern drug delivery systems, such as nanoformulations, which increase their bioavailability.

Objectives: The aim of this work was to obtain different kinds of topical vehicles formulation and compare their efficiency in the release of perillyl alcohol. The release kinetics was determined by using certain selected mathematical models.

Method: Formulations of a hydrogel, O/W nanoemulsion, O/W macroemulsion and nanostructured lipid carrier were developed as carriers for perillyl alcohol - one of the promising anticancer natural agents. The release study of the active agents was carried out using the Spectra/Por Standard Regenerated Cellulose membrane, at temperature T=320C. The concentration of active agents in the receptor solution was analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography. The release kinetics was determined by using selected mathematical models.

Results: The results of our release studies have shown that the highest and comparable amount of perillyl alcohol was released from hydrogel (35.72 ± 0.21%), NLC (35.54 ± 1.48%) and nanoemulsion (34.87 ± 4.49%). The release was found to follow Fickian diffusion in the case of hydrogel and macroemulsion, while an anomalous mechanism was observed in the case of nanoformulations. Nevertheless, the obtained nanoformulations, as well as a conventional hydrogel, may be considered potential vehicles in topical delivery of perillyl alcohol.

Keywords: Macroemulsion; hydrogel; nanoformulations; perillyl alcohol; skin cancer; vehicles..