Formulation and Optimization of Diminazene Aceturate Thermosensitive Hydrogel

An acceptable diminazene aceturate (DA) thermosensitive hydrogel was prepared for tickborne piroplasm parasite control. Different recipe were screened with gelation time and the amount of surface exudates as evaluation indexes. The optimal thermosensitive hydrogel formulation and preparation process were as followed: 1.0 mL of chitosan solution (3%, w/v), 1.0 mL of glycerol 2-phosphate disodium salt hydrate solution (15%, w/v) and 50 mu L of PEG600 solution were mixed evenly in an ice bath, then 50 mu L of 0.072 g/mL DA aqueous solution was added, which finally resulted in an yellow drug-suspended hydrogel. Magnetically high-speeding stirring was necessary throughout the whole preparation process. Gel formation experiments showed DA-suspended hydrogel prepared under the above-mentioned procedure can be gelled within 4.27 +/- 0.42 min at 37 degrees C, little surface exudates was observed, and particle size was within 2.76 +/- 1.06 mu m.