Design and development of naringin-loaded proposomal gel for wound healing

Background: The injuries or wounds caused by various means will impact human lives severely. An increase in the demand for wounds or burns was observed. For better wound healing and to combat the free radical effect on the healing process, wounds must be treated with multifunctional or multipurpose dressing or gel or any other type of biomaterial. Objectives: The study aimed to develop, optimize, and evaluate the naringin-loaded proposomal gel (PPG) for quick wound healing. Methods: The central composite design was employed for the optimization of proposomes. Naringin-loaded proposomes were evaluated for percentage entrapment efficiency (EE), the particle size of proposomes (PsP), and the zeta potential of proposomes (ZpP). The change in drug release profile was studied by dissolution. Furthermore, naringin and naringin-loaded proposomes, antioxidant activity was determined by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl hydrate (DPPH) reagent and ascorbic acid as a reference standard. Different gel bases were prepared, and based on various parameters, the G2 (0.6% Carbopol 974) gel base was selected for naringin proposomes loading. The naringin-loaded PPG was evaluated for various in vitro and in vivo wound-healing properties. Results: The optimized naringin-loaded proposomes showed extended drug release (90.78 ± 2.19%) for 72 h. The naringin-loaded PPG improved the permeability of naringin, which showed 28.91 ± 2.81% of drug release after 96 h, and the drug solution showed 9.05 ± 0.92%. IC50 values of antioxidant activity of naringin and naringin proposomes were found to be 337.31 μg/ml and 201.86 μg/ml, respectively. The naringin-loaded PPG showed better wound closure on the 15th day (3.32%) compared with proposomal solution (4.75%) or naringin topical gel (4.2%). Conclusion: Based on the obtained results, we conclude naringin-loaded PPG can be an alternative strategic approach to deliver the naringin for quick wound healing.