Escin is a neutral glycosidic drug with anti-inflammatory, anti-edematous, vasoprotective and venotonic activity used in treatment of chronic venous insufficiency (CVI), hemorrhoids and post-operative oedema.The purpose of this study is to explore the passive and electrically assisted transdermal transport of escin by iontophoresis, the effect of different variables on transdermal transport and iontophoresis efficiency was assessed. These variables are type of iontophoresis (anodal/cathodal), current density (0.25 mA/cm2 & 0.5 mA/cm2), concentration of drug solution (2 mg/ml & 4 mg/ml), mode of current (continuous/pulsed) and type of solvent used (Deionized water/normal saline). In vitro passive and iontophoretic transport experiments of escin were performed in phosphate-buffered medium. Rat skin show a net negative charge at pH 7.4 and in the presence of current, an electroosmotic convective solvent flow in the anode-to-cathode direction takes place. The results of the present study show that transdermal iontophoresis can be useful for enhancing the transport across the skin of high molecular weight compounds, even though neutral.
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