ORGANOGELS: A NOVEL DRUG DELIVERY SYSTEMS

Topical gel drug administration is a localized drug delivery system to deliver drug anywhere in the body through ophthalmic, rectal, vaginal and skin as topical routes. Skin is one of the most extensive and readily accessible organs on human body for topical administration and is main route of topical drug delivery system. Topical application of drugs offers potential advantages of delivering the drug directly to the site of action and acting for an extended period of time. An Organogel contains drugs are administered topically in order to achieve optimal cutaneous and percutaneous drug delivery because of various advantages such as ease of administration, non-invasive, better tolerance and compliance, local enhanced transdermal delivery, avoidance of local gastrointestinal toxicity, avoidance of first pass metabolism. The organogels may be regarded as bi-continuous systems consisting of gelators and apolar solvent, which may or may not contain water-molecules entrapped within the selfassembled structures of the gelator. Organogels are prepared by Fluid filled method, Hydration method, Soild-fiber method. Organogels are generally estimated for various parameters such as pH, Rheology, Spreadibility, Viscosity etc. Lecithin organogels (LOS) are thermodynamically stable, clear, viscoelastic and biocompatible. In the last decade, interest in physical organogels has grown rapidly with the discovery and synthesis of a very large number of diverse molecules, which can gel organic solvents at low concentrations. In the pharmaceutical field, organogels can be used for drug and vaccine delivery via different administration routes. Organogels present very interesting advantages as drug delivery formulations, amongst their ease of preparation and administration. KEYWORD: Organogel, Topical, Percutaneous, Pharmaceutical.