FORMULATION OF ANTIMICROBIAL POLYHERBAL DUSTING POWDER AND ITS EVALUATION

INTRODUCTION

Powders: A powder is a homogenous mixture of more or less finely divided particulate material in dry form.

Powders are one of the oldest dosage forms and are used both internally and externally. ^[5]

Dusting powder:

Definition – A powder used on the skin or on wounds especially for allaying irritation or absorbing moisture is called as Dusting powder.

Dusting powders are usually mixtures of two or more substances in fine powder, intended for external application on to the skin (wounds, burns, surgical incision). Powder bases absorb secretions and exert a drying effect, which relieves congestion and imparts a cooling sensation. Bentonite, kaolin, kieselguhr, magnesium carbonate, starch and talc are used as inert bases for dusting powders. These are dispensed in sifter- top packages. They have particle size about 0.1 micrometer to 10 micrometers.

Dusting powders are used to prevent and treat minor skin infections caused by small cuts, scrapes, or burns. Some skin infections can also be treated by using dusting powders such as athlete’s foot, jock itch and ringworm. It also relieves burning, itching, cracking of the skin and discomfort caused by these infections. ^[2,4]

TYPES:  There are 2 types of dusting powder:

1) Medical– For superficial skin conditions, medical powders are used. They must be free from pathogens. Some mineral ingredients may contain spores of tetanus, gas gangrene etc. and so they must be sterilized properly. They are not used for open wounds or area of broken skin which is mentioned in the label also.

2) Surgical– Surgical dusting powders are used in body cavities and major wounds, on burns and on umbilical cords of infants also. They are sterile powders. ^[8]

PROPERTIES: ^[1]

1) It should be homogenous.

2) It should not cause local irritation.

3) It should flow easily and spread uniformly.

4) It should cling to the skin on application.

5) It should have adsorptive and absorptive capacity.

COMPOUNDING METHODS:

1) Grinding

2) Weighing

3) Mixing

4) Wrapping

Advantages:

• Good chemical stability compared with fluids.
• Easy to carry than the liquid dosage forms.
• Suitable for small children and elderly patients.
• Easy to apply over wounds
• Economical
• Rapid onset of action. ^[6]

Disadvantages:         

• Difficult to protect powders containing hygroscopic or aromatic materials from decomposition.
• Not suitable for drugs which are unstable in normal atmospheric condition
• Susceptible to physical instability. ^[6]

INGREDIENTS:

1. Starch: It is used as adsorbent in the formulation. It is insoluble residue which remains after a granular starch is partially solubilized by an enzyme. This is used as the base for dusting powder either alone or in combination with other ingredients like talc.^[9]
2. Talc: It is clay mineral composed of hydrated magnesium silicate. Talc in powdered form, often in combination with corn starch, is widely used substance known as baby powder. This mineral is used as a thickening agent and lubricant. It is also used for the adsorbent action. ^[10]
3. Kaolin: It is a clay mineral, part of group of industrial minerals. Kaolin is applied to the skin to dry or soften the skin. It also used for the adsorbent action. ^[11]
4. Zinc stearate: It is widely used as a release agent, dusting agent and a stabilizer. It is used in dusting powders as a dry lubricant to absorb moisture and prevent chafing.^[12]
5. Rose oil: It is essential oil extracted from the petals of various types of rose. It act as antimicrobial at MIC at 0.125% to 1.000%.^[13,14]
6. Almond oil: The almond is a species of tree native to Mediterranean climate regions of the Middle East and Southern Asia. Almonds are rich source of oil, with 50% of kernel dry mass as fat. Almond oil is obtained from the dried kernel of almonds. It is used to treat minor wounds, cuts. It acts against yeast. It shows antibacterial and antifungal activity against Staphylococcus aureus.^[15]
7. Clove oil: The oil is extracted from the clove plant, Syzygium aromaticum. Madagaskar and Indonesia are the main producers of clove oil. It is used to relieve toothache temporarily. It shows minimum inhibitory concentration at 0.062% to 0.500%. It acts against E. coli and S. aureus^{. [16, 17]}
8. Objectives:

• To determine the antimicrobial activity of herbal plants against microbes.
• To evaluate and check the wound healing efficacy of the selected herbal drugs.
• To improve patient outcomes.
• To decrease patient harm.
• Evaluation of dusting powder of different parameters.

Plan of work:

• Selection of drugs
• Collection of excipients
• Selection of procedure
• Formulation of dusting powder
• Evaluation of dusting powder

1. Organoleptic characteristics
2. Micromeritic properties
3. Materials and methods

The pure rose oil, clove oil and almond oil were purchased from the Vikas medical store and other required chemicals such as Starch, Talc, Kaolin, Zinc stearate were issued from the Chemical industries, Alka Scientific Nagpur, The standard Scientific Nagpur, Apurva Scientific Gondia.

FORMULA:

Procedure: Weigh given quantity of ingredients mentioned in the formulae. Transfer it to a clean mortar-pestle. Triturate all the ingredients until fine powder is obtained. Pass this powder through the sieve 120#. ^[8]

Evaluation of dusting powder:       

Evaluation of formulation was carried out as follows ^[6]

• Physical characteristics- The colour, odour and appearance of the powder is evaluated by simple visualization.
• pH – pH is a measure of the acidic or basic nature of the formulation. The pH of dusting powder is determined to avoid the irritation to the skin.
• Particle size- The particle size of prepared powder was determined by using microscope and sieve analysis.
• Abrasiveness- It was studied by rubbing the powder on a surface and then studying the effect on the surface using microscope.
• Bulk density (BD) and tapped density (TD) – The powder was passed through a no. 18 sieve into a pre-weighed 25 ml graduated cylinder with 0.5ml markings. The bulk volume was measured after manually tapping the cylinder two times on a flat table top surface. The tapped volume was measured with the tap density tester after tapping in increments of 500, 750, and 1250 taps with 250 drops per minute.

          Bulk density = Bulk mass/ Bulk volume

Tapped density = Mass of granules/ volume of granules

• Angle of repose- The flow properties of powders can be studied by measuring angle of repose. It was determined by the funnel method. The funnel was fixed in place, 4cm above the bench surface. After the cone from 5g of sample was built, height of the granules forming the cone (h) and the radius(r) of the base were measured. The angle of repose was calculated as follows:

                  Angle of repose = tan-¹(h/r)

Where,

h= height of the powder cone

r= radius of the powder cone

• Carr’s index- The bulk and tapped densities were used to calculate Carr’s compressibility index to provide measure of the flow properties and compressibility of powders.

                  Carr’s index = Tap density- bulk density/tap density * 100

• Hausner ratio- It is indicative of flow properties. It is derived property from bulk and tapped density. Lower the Hausner ratio is indicating better flow whereas higher ratio indicates poor flow of granules. Hausner ratio is calculated by the following formula:

                   Hausner ratio = Tap density/ Bulk density

• Moisture content- Percentage of moisture content is calculated by using formula:

% Moisture = Initial weight- final weight/ initial weight * 100

ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY

The antimicrobial activity of dusting powder was tested by well- diffusion using cup plate method against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli obtained from Microbiology Laboratory, M.I.B.P. Gondia.

Materials requirements: –

• Nutrient broth (for bacterial cultivation)
• Mix culture of both microorganism
• Different concentration of trial dusting powder
• Sterile Petri plates and sterile cork borer
• Incubator and Autoclave

Well- diffusion using cup plate method:

Agar medium was prepared and autoclaved. Inoculums was added in 250 ml of the media under aseptic condition and then media was poured in Petri plates. After the medium was solidified wells were bored with help of sterile borer.  ^[5]

Sample preparation: – About 1gm of powder was dissolve in the distilled water until it converts into a solution. After that, the bores on each plate were filled completely with the solution. In clockwise manner, the labeled wells were incubated at 32- 37⁰C for 48 hours.

The sensitivity of test organism to each antibacterial agent was indicated by clear zones of inhibition around the well.

Statistical evaluation

The antimicrobial activity was determined by measuring the diameter of zone of inhibition. ^[8]

5. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION:

1)  Physical characteristics- The physical characteristics of the powder was evaluated. The color of powder was white with characteristics odor and smooth appearance.

2) _pH of the formulation- The pH of dusting powder was determined by digital pH meter. 1gm of powder was dissolved in 100 ml of distilled water and the pH was measured. The pH was found to be acidic.

3) Particle size- The particle size of the powder was found in the range was found to be 0.125 mm [125 microns].

4) Abrasiveness- The powder was found for absence of grittiness

5) Bulk density-The bulk density of the powder was found to be 0.32g/cm³.

6) Tap density – The Tap density of the powder was found to be 0.36g/cm³.

7) Angle of repose – The Angle of repose of the powder was found to be 23⁰.

8) Carr’s index- The Carrs index of the powder was found to be 18%.

9) Hausner index- The Hausner ratio of the powder was found to be 1.23 .

10) Moisture content-  The Moisture content was found to be 3.30%w/v.

Conclusion:

The formulation no. F4 of polyherbal dusting powder was found to be in compliance with all properties of powder and exhibited satisfactory results. The evaluation studies show good antimicrobial activity than other formulation batches. From the given study, it can be concluded that all the four formulations of dusting powder prepared were good and had all the properties. Formulation F4 exhibited satisfactory results.

List of Equipment’s

List of chemicals

REFERENCES

1. Textbook of professional pharmacy- N. K. Jain & S. N. Sharma, Vallabh prakashan, Page no. 286- 287
2. Modern dispensing pharmacy by N. K. Jain & G. D. Gupta, IV Edition, page no. 180-196.
3. A Textbook of Pharmaceutical Formulation by B. M. Mittal, page no. 180.
4. Introduction to dosage form by Sukhbir Kaur, page no. 10-11.
5. Handbook of pharmaceutical Microbiology, Experiments and techniques, III rd Edition by Chandrakant Kokare. 2.17-2.24
6. Textbook of Pharmaceutics- I as per PCI Regulations by A. A. Hajare and Dr. D. A. Bhagwat, page no. 6.1- 6.14.
7. Systemic approach to practical pharmaceutics by Dr. A. K. Seth, page no. 4/231- 4/235.
8. Pharmaceutics I, R.M. Mehta (2015) vallabh prakashan 6th edition pg no 3-4
9. https://patents.google.com/patent/EP0182296A2
10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talc
11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaolinite
12. https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/11178
13. https://www.science.gov/topicpages/t/tested+essential+oils
14. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_oil
15. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almond#Oils
16. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_of_clove
17. Fu, Y., Zu, Y., Chen, L., Shi, X., Wang, Z., Sun, S., & Efferth, T. (2007). Antimicrobial activity of clove and rosemary essential oils alone and in combination. Phytotherapy research, 21(10), 989-994.