The aim of the current study was to formulate silymarin into nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs) to enhance its sun screening efficacy and safety. NLCs of silymarin were prepared by the high pressure homogenization. A complete 32 factorial design was used for the formulation and evaluation of the prepared silymarin NLCs. The study design involves the investigation of the effect of two independent variables namely ratio of solid lipid and liquid lipid concentration (60:40, 70:30, 80:20 with respect to total lipid) and tween 80 concentration (3%, 4% and 5%) on surface morphology by SEM analysis, FTIR, DSC, the particle size (PS), the entrapment efficiency (% EE) and the in-vitro drug release after 24 h. The prepared NLCs were spherical in overall shape. Solid lipid and liquid ratio 70:30 and tween 80 concentration 5% were found to significantly decrease the PS and increase the %EE with when used ethyl oleate concentration 30% (of total lipid concentration). Increasing Tween 80 concentration decreased significantly the particle size, but showing slightly effect on the % EE. The candidate silymarin-loaded NLC dispersion was then formulated into gel. The incorporation of silymarin into NLCs greatly increased the in-vitro sun protection factor SPF of formulation optimized batch A6 was 37.14 and 21.72 of marketed formulation. Emersion of potential of NLCs using stearic acid and ethyl oleate as a new topical drug delivery system for enhancing the sun-screening efficacy of silymarin.
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