The imbalance in homeostatic process between oxidants and antioxidants in the body caused by reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (free radicals) leads to oxidative stress. Cellular enzymes such as myeloperoxidase, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate-oxidase (NADPH-oxidase) and nitric oxide synthase (NOS) produce these reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS). Oxidative stress is considered to be the primary cause of aging and a wide variety of human diseases such as cancers, diabetes, neurodegenerative disorders (Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease), rheumatoid arthritis etc. Invariably, to maintain a healthy biological system the balance between oxidation and antioxidation is a critical requirement. Antioxidants are any substances that significantly delay, prevent or inhibit oxidative damage to target molecules. They are widely distributed throughout plants and animals and are found to be at low concentrations compared with that of oxidizable substrates. Natural and synthetic antioxidants have been reported to prevent or treat various human diseases. This article presents a comprehensive account of free radical generation, oxidative stress and its consequences, antioxidants including sources, classification, chemical structures, mechanisms of action, physicochemical properties. The study also dealt with applications of antioxidants in pharmaceutical and food industries, their therapeutic properties and pharmacokinetic features.
African trypanosomiasis is a vector-borne parasitic disease causing serious risks to the lives of about 60 million people and 48 million cattle globally. Nigerian medicinal plants are known to contain a large variety of chemical structures and some of the plant extracts have been screened for antitrypanosomal activity, in the search for potential new drugs against the illness. We surveyed the literatures on plants and plant-derived products with antitrypanosomal activity from Nigerian flora published from 1990 to 2014. About 90 plants were identified, with 54 compounds as potential active agents and presented by plant families in alphabetical order. This review indicates that the Nigerian flora may be suitable as a starting point in searching for new and more efficient trypanocidal molecules.
The objective of the present study was to examine the influence of cosolvent system and microemulsion formulation on in-vitro skin permeation of gabapentin, furthermore, to characterize the physicochemical properties of drug-loaded oil-in-water (o/w) and water-in-oil (w/o) cremophor 40-based microemulsions in comparison to the blank counterparts. The cosolvent system prepared by homogenous mixing is composed of ethanol-water and propylene glycol-water mixture (90:10, 80:20, 70:30 v/v) respectively. The microemulsion consisted of coconut oil, water and mixture of cremophor 40 (surfactant) and ethanol (cosurfactant) and was prepared by aqueous phase titration method. Physicochemical properties of microemulsions were determined using reported procedures. Transdermal flux for gabapentin was studied in-vitro using modified Franz diffusion cells. The physicochemical properties of drug-loaded microemulsions and their blank counterparts were generally alike, however, slight variation in pH and viscosity was observed probably due to the intrinsic properties of the drug. The ethanol-water system (70:30 v/v) gave higher flux for gabapentin when compared to propylene glycol-water system (70:30 v/v). The w/o microemulsion formulations resulted in, higher flux for gabapentin when compared to o/w formulations. FTIR spectra of the untreated stratum corneum, when compared to cosolvent system and microemulsion treated stratum corneum, suggest the mechanism of permeation to be disruption of lipid bilayers and keratin denaturation of the stratum corneum. The results show that incorporation of gabapentin into microemulsions did not change the microemulsion type. The in vitro permeation data obtained from experimental work suggest that the cosolvent system (ethanol-water 70:30 v/v) and w/o microemulsion formulations respectively, can be successfully used as potential vehicles in developing transdermal therapeutic systems for gabapentin.
The poor aqueous solubility of drugs is a challenging problem faced by pharmaceutical scientists in drug formulation. Cosolvency and micellization techniques have been severally used to enhance the solubility of poorly aqueous soluble drugs. Mirtazapine, a tetracyclic antidepressant used for the treatment of moderate to severe depression and anxiety, has very poor aqueous solubility. The objective of the study was to investigate the effect of solubilizing agents (cosolvents and surfactants) on the aqueous solubility of mirtazapine while envisaging that any significant improvement in its aqueous solubility could contribute towards alleviating the withdrawal symptoms often associated with the drug. The solubility of mirtazapine was determined at room temperature in aqueous mixtures of cosolvents (propylene glycol and polyethylene glycol 400) and surfactants (polysorbate 20, polysorbate 80 and sodium lauryl sulfate). An exponential increase in mirtazapine solubility was observed when total drug solubility in water-cosolvent system was plotted against cosolvent fraction volume. Polyethylene glycol 400 gave larger solubilization capacity (σ) when compared to propylene glycol. With the surfactants, linear relationship between the total solubility of the drug in water-surfactant mixtures and surfactant concentration was noted. Sodium lauryl sulfate showed the largest solubilization power (k) when compared to the nonionic surfactants (polysorbate 20 and polysorbate 80 respectively). A linear relationship between standard free energy and partition coefficient was also observed. The result of the study shows that aqueous solubility of mirtazapine is significantly improved by cosolvency and micellization and therefore there exists the possibility of improving the withdrawal symptoms often experienced with the drug. It also suggests that large free energy is required for drugs with high partition coefficients to permeate the biological membrane.
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