Pharmaceutical Research & Innovations in Pharma Industry

Introduction: Ayurveda consists of two words Ayu means ‘life’ or ‘time from birth to death’ and Veda means ‘knowledge’ or ‘learning’. It is an ancient and traditional healthcare system of Indian medicine which has been developed to modern practice as “Tradition to Trend”. The aim of the present project is to combine modern technologies with traditional knowledge of Ayurveda by preparing a liposomal formulation containing gallic acid. The formulations containing Gallic acid available today face problem of rapid elimination from the body. Thus the objective of the project is to incorporate gallic acid into a novel formulation such as liposomes by using phospholipid to prolong its retention time and increase bioavailability as well as the efficacy of the formulation.

Methodology & Theoretical Orientation: Ethanol injection method was used for formulation development of liposomes. After optimization of the process parameters, gallic acid loaded liposomal formulation was successfully developed. The optimized dispersion exhibited enhanced anti-inflammatory activity by carrageenan-induced paw edema method when compared with gallic acid alone. The in-vivo antioxidant activity of gallic acid loaded liposomes showed that the optimized liposomal formulation increased the activity of catalase, superoxide dismutase, reduced glutathione and glutathione peroxidase and decreased the serum level of malondialdehyde.

Conclusion & Significance: The liposomal formulation containing gallic acid was developed successfully and was found to be stable after 3months. The developed liposomal formulation showed statistically significant anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activity as compared to gallic acid alone. Thus, the liposomal formulation is improving the penetration of gallic acid and thus giving enhanced activity.