Idea and method of regularity knowledge of Chinese materia medica on essential oils as potential penetration enhancers based on drug property characteristics / 中草药

ABSTRACT

Penetration enhancers (PE) were usually applied as the optimum strategy to improve the percutaneous absorption of active components from pharmaceutical preparations. Essential oils (EOs) were a kind of PE with satisfactory characteristics. Only 34 of among more than 300 EOs are reported to be used as PE. That is to say, about 90% EOs have not been applied until now and EOs possess great potential to act as PE. However, the research of EOs from Chinese materia medica (CMM) mainly followed the strategy of chemical PE. A large amount of studies were carried out to evaluate the transdermal penetration enhancing efficacy and pharmacological activity, resulting in the limited efficiency. EOs of CMM were also the key material basis of CMM pungent flavor. In the theory of traditional Chinese medicines (TCM), it was accepted that the pungent flavor could open the striae and interstice. The results of literature investigation revealed that the penetration enhancing efficacy of EOs directly related with drug property characteristics of CMM. Therefore, in the present paper, it was proposed that a rule existed between the penetration enhancing efficacy of EOs and drug property characteristics of CMM. A series of studies were then designed to reveal the rule with the aid of data analysis. The resultant rule will help to find the effective PE from various EOs. Moreover, to facilitate the high-throughput screening of EOs, liposomal artificial skin membrane was prepared and applied to the evaluation of in vitro penetration enhancing efficacy of EOs with optimization of the evaluation parameters. Finally, the results of the study will provide a novel strategy for the research of EOs as PE and the research of the application of TCM theory to the modern pharmaceutical study. In addition, the application of microemulsion technique will be the future trends of EOs as PE to solve the stability problems.