Transfersome gel formulation of an ethanol extract of apples (malus domestica mill) containing antioxidants and in vitro penetration testing using franz diffusion cells

Objective: This study aims to formulate and characterize a transfersome apple peel extract, formulate it into a gel, and compare it with a control gel made without transfersome. Methods: Both gels were evaluated, stability tested, and penetration tested using Franz diffusion cells on the skin of female Sprague-Dawley rats. The transfersome preparations were formulated with different concentrations of the active substance, quercetin: 0.5% (F1); 0.7% (F2), and 1.0% (F3). Results: Based on the characterization results, F1 was selected as the optimum gel formulation because it had spherical morphology, a D_mean volume of 106.44±2.70 nm, a polydispersity index of 0.078±0.01, a zeta potential of −49.96±2.05 mV, and a drug efficiency entrapment percentage of 78.78±0.46%. The cumulative amount of quercetin that was penetrated with the transfersome gel was 1514.41±26.31 µg/cm², whereas the penetration with the control gel extract was 1133.62±18.96 µg/cm². The cumulative percentages of the penetrated gel transfersome and gel extract were 78.40±1.89% and 49.89±0.88%, respectively. The fluxes of transfersome gel and control gel extract were 52.33±0.11 µg/cm²/hrs and 40.89±0.68 µg/cm²/hrs, respectively. Conclusions: Based on these results, it can be concluded that the gel with transfersome exhibited better penetration than the gel extract alone.