Formulation and quality control of a topical gel product for treatment of melasmaFormulation and quality control of a topical gel product for treatment of melasma

Abstract

<strong>Background and objectives:</strong> Melasma is one of the most common pigmentary disorders. It has a considerable impact on quality of life. The treatment of melasma has still remained a challenge because the efficient treatment has not been proven until now and there is still a need to find new depigmenting products.<em>Allium cepa </em>L. and <em>Cucumis melo</em> L. seeds as well as tragacanth have been introduced in Iranian traditional medicine (ITM) as depigmenting agents. Moreover, modern studies have shown their antioxidant and inhibitory mushroom tyrosinase effect.In this study, a topical gel containing <em>Allium cepa </em>L. and <em>Cucumis melo</em> L. seeds extract was prepared with tragacanth and quality control evaluations have been accomplished.<strong> Method: </strong>After performing quality control of plants seeds and tragacanth according to pharmacopoeia, the ethanol extract of <em>A. cepa </em>and hydroalcoholic extract of <em>C. melo</em> seeds were prepared. An appropriate gel formulation was selected on the base of suitable viscosity. The gel product was formulated using 5% of each plant extracts in tragacanth gel base. In addition, the herbal gel was evaluated using pharmaceutical behavior such as physical appearance, pH, viscosity, spreadability as well as phenolics content.<strong> Results</strong>: The herbal gel product showed acceptable pharmaceutical behavior as well as considerable phenolic content (1.43±0.01 mg/g). <strong>Conclusion: </strong>The prepared topical gel product could be a good natural formulation candidate for clinical studies in the field of hyperpigmentation. Moreover, phenolic content of the product could be considered as an indicator for its quality control.