Effects of Sting Plant Extracts as Penetration Enhancers on Transdermal Delivery of Hypoglycemic Compounds

摘要

Background and objectives: The percutaneous route is an interesting and inventive investigation field of drug delivery. However, it is challenging for drug molecules to pass through the skins surface, which is a characterized by its permeability barrier. The purpose of this study is to look at the effect of some penetration enhancers on in vivo permeation of insulin and insulin sensitizers (curcumin and rutin) through diabetes-induced mouse skin. Materials and Methods: Sting crude extracts of Dendrocnide meyeniana, Urtica thunbergiana Sieb. and Zucc, and Alocasia odora (Lodd.) Spach were used as the penetration enhancers. Mouse skin irritation was tested by smearing the enhancers for the measurements at different time points and the cell viability of the HaCaT human skin keratinocytes, which was determined by Trypan blue exclusion and MTT assays to evaluate human biosafety for these extracts after the mouse skin permeation experiments. Results: All enhancers induced a slight erythema without edema on the mouse skin that completely recovered after 6 h from the enhancer smears as compared with normal mouse skin. Furthermore, no damaged cells were found in the HaCaT keratinocytes under sting crude extract treatments. The blood sugar level in the diabetic mice treated with the insulin or insulin sensitizers, decreased significantly (p < 0.05) in the presence of enhancers. The area under the curve (AUC) values of transdermal drug delivery (TDD) ranged from 42,000 ± 5000 mg/dL x min without enhancers, to 30,000 ± 2000 mg/dL x min in the presence of enhancers. Conclusions: This study exhibited that natural plant extracts could be preferred over the chemically synthesized molecules and are safe and potent penetration enhancers for stimulating the transdermal absorption of drugs.