Designing, Optimising, and Assessing a Novel Emulgel Containing Minoxidil for Controlled Drug Release, Incorporating Marine-based Polymers.

Objective: This study aimed to develop an emulgel containing minoxidil as a drug for hair growth promotion in diseases, such as androgenetic alopecia, using gelling agents, such as chitosan and fucoidan.

Methods: In this study, gelling agents were selected for the emulgel formulation. By various evaluation tests and through optimization, the chitosan-fucoidan combination was selected as the gelling agent for the preparation of emulgel using various evaluation parameters.

Results: X2, the best emulgel formulation, contained 2.54 % chitosan and 0.896 % fucoidan. Chitosan prolonged the duration of drug release, and controlled release was obtained. Fucoidan increased the gelling activity, water absorption rate, and stability of the formulation. In this study, the X2 formulation showed the highest percentage of drug release at the 12th hour. It was found to be 99.7%, which followed the zero-order release model.

Conclusion: Owing to the wide range of biological activities of fucoidan, the loaded active substance can be protected, and at the same time, its potency can be improved, resulting in effective treatment. Because fucoidan has diverse properties and potential, it will be widely used in the biomedical and pharmaceutical industries in the future.