जर्नल ऑफ माइक्रोबियल पैथोजेनेसिस

Effect of a biosurfactant extract obtained from corn in active principles permeation

Abstract

Rodriguez Lopez L

Nowadays, one of the most important challenges in the
pharmaceutical industry is to find additives for formulations
which improve the permeation and solubility of drugs. Usually,
because of their solubilising and emulsifying properties, it is
common to use surfactants in ointments and creams.
However, some allergies and adverse effects have been
associated with these kinds of substances. In this sense, the
study of biosurfactants as an alternative to synthetic
surfactants is playing a more important role. Biosurfactants
are surface-active compounds, composed of biomolecules,
with some advantages in comparison with their chemical
counterparts, such as biodegradability or low toxicity. For this
reason, the aim of this work was to study the effect of a
biosurfactant extract, obtained from a corn-milling industry
stream, in drug permeation through polydimethylsiloxane
(PDMS). This polymer was chosen as a skin mimic, due to its
good correlation with an in vivo situation in a case whereby
the penetrant lipophilicity was the prime determinant of
compound permeation. During this study, the permeation of
five drugs in the presence of biosurfactant at different
concentrations were determined, in comparison with a control
without the biosurfactant extract.