Comparative study of anti-allergic activity of two poly-herbal formulations in ova-challenged allergic rhinitis mice model

This study was to prepare a novel in situ gel system for nasal delivery of poly-herbal extracts and study its efficacy on the allergic rhinitis model. The main purpose is to compare the efficacy of poly-herbal nasal drops and in situ gel. A temperature depended in situ gel was developed and characterized with gellan gum as a carrier. The system was stable kept at 40 ± 2 °C for 6 months, and the micrographic results showed that in situ gel was safety without mucous irritation when given daily for 26 days to mice with allergic rhinitis that the effect of drops for the treatment. Extracts in gellan gum produced obviously effect on allergic rhinitis at the doses of 20 g/body following intranasal administration, and the efficacy was significantly superior to that of the drops (p < 0.01). This study uses Kruskal–Wallis test analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by Dunn’s test for the first time to develop, optimize the formulation and assess factors affecting the critical quality attributes. Histopathological study of the nasal mucosa suggested that the formulation was safe for nasal administration. The statistical difference in absolute bioavailability between drop and in situ gel by nasal route suggested that in situ gel had almost 21% increase in bioavailability for Moringa oleifera and for Embelia Ribes in combination there was a 16% increase over drop formulations. Thus the situ gel system is a promising approach for the intranasal delivery of polyherbal extracts for the therapeutic effect improvement.