Curcuma Turmeric Oil Enhanced Anti-Dermatophytic Drug Activity Against Candida albicans and Trichophyton mentagrophytes.

BACKGROUND: As per the World Health Organization survey, it has been found that dermatophyte infections are affecting around one-fourth of the world's population. The dermatophytes are commonly keratinophilic in nature which can multiply and invade the keratinized tissues and affect various parts of the human body like nails, skin, and hair. The luliconazole is an antifungal drug utilized against dermatophytes which causes athlete's foot and ringworm etc. fungal infections of the skin or nails caused by Candida albicans (C.P. Robin) Berkhout and Trichophyton mentagrophytes (Robin) Blanchard. OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to develop the luliconazole topical cream with turmeric oil and penetration enhancer to improve permeability and enhance antifungal activity. METHODS: To prepare the luliconazole topical cream, various compositions of formulation were melted and mixed with varying concentrations of turmeric oil. The oil, drug, and aqueous phases were prepared separately and mixed stepwise in a vessel under continuous stirring at control conditions. RESULTS: The optimized LC2 cream showed pH 6.45±0.12, which is considered suitable to avoid irritation upon topical application. The LC2 cream formulation also showed significantly (p<0.05) more permeability with a permeation flux (0.347 mg/cm2/h) against an aqueous suspension of the drug (0.215 mg/cm2/h). The LC2 cream followed the Higuchi model and showed the drug release from cream via a diffusion mechanism with super case II transport mechanism. Furthermore, the antifungal activity of optimized cream was found better than marketed cream. CONCLUSION: It is concluded that the prepared luliconazole cream can be an effective anti-fungal treatment with enhanced drug delivery into the skin to treat athlete's foot and ringworm etc. caused by dermatophytes namely C. albicans and Trichophyton spp.