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Research Gate: Pharmaceutical Science
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Formulation and Evaluation of Emulgel Containing Wrightia tinctoria Leaves Extract for the Management of Psoriasis
Abstract
Psoriasis is a chronic, immune-mediated inflammatory skin disorder affecting roughly 2–3% of the world's population, and current mainstay therapies — corticosteroids, vitamin-D analogues, coal tar and biologics — remain limited by cutaneous adverse effects, tachyphylaxis and poor long-term adherence. Wrightia tinctoria, a plant long used in Siddha and Ayurvedic practice for psoriasis-like dermatoses, is presently available mainly as oil-based preparations that are greasy, staining and poorly controlled in their drug release. This study formulated and characterized a Carbopol 934 emulgel of W. tinctoria leaf hexane extract as a non-greasy alternative. Shade-dried leaves were Soxhlet-extracted in n-hexane, and the extract was profiled by GC-MS, which resolved 152 constituents; squalene (10.57%), β-caryophyllene (6.21%), eugenol (4.54%) and α-humulene (1.93%) were the major bioactives, with eugenol selected as the UV marker for quantitation (283 nm; Y = 0.01695X + 0.00270, R² = 0.99921). Five batches (F1–F5) were prepared by a traditional trial-batch method varying Carbopol 934 and Tween 80, and evaluated for pH, viscosity, spreadability, drug content, washability and centrifugation stability. Batch F3 (1.0 g Carbopol 934, 1.0 g Tween 80) combined a balanced viscosity (61,100 ± 600 cP), suitable pH (6.95 ± 0.01) and spreadability (6.15 ± 0.05 cm) with the most complete ex vivo permeation across excised goat skin (97.54 ± 2.34% at 10 h), following Korsmeyer–Peppas kinetics (R² = 0.9993, n = 0.8865) indicative of anomalous, non-Fickian transport. ATR-FTIR spectra of the extract and the finished F3 gel showed no unexplained new peaks, supporting drug–excipient compatibility. Molecular docking of the four major GC-MS-identified constituents against COX-2 (PDB 5KIR) and IL-17A (PDB 4HR9) showed squalene binding IL-17A most favourably (−8.053 kcal/mol), with humulene, caryophyllene and eugenol also showing appreciable COX-2 affinity, offering an in-silico mechanistic rationale consistent with the plant's traditional antipsoriatic use. Together, these findings support the optimized F3 emulgel as a reproducible, mechanistically plausible, non-greasy topical candidate for further preclinical development in psoriasis management.