T2 - Week 2 Flashcards
What are pastes?
High concentrations of finely powdered ingredients (25%) incorporated into ointment base or glycerol, or the lipophilic, greasy vehicle
What are the advantages of paste being stiff?
- Localizes drug delivery in case a corrosive ingredient needs to be applied to the skin
- Absorb exudates due to powder component (for open wounds)
- Effective sun barrier because it is less penetrating and form an unbroken relatively water impermeable film that is opaque
- Less greasy due the absorption of the fluid hydrocarbon fraction into particles
How are pastes prepared?
- Direct mixing or the use of heat to soften
- Levigation by incorporating solid into a congealed system
- Remainders of the base are added with continued levigation until solids are uniformly dispersed in the vehicle
What are the types of pastes?
- Fatty
- Non-greasy
How are fatty pastes different from non-greasy?
Fatty: (Lassar’s Plain Zinc Paste) prepared by zinc oxide and starch mixed with white ointment
Very firm and protects skin better by absorbing secretions
Non-greasy: (Bassorin Paste) Paste that contains the hydrophilic component of tragacanth gels in water
What are creams?
- Ointments which are made less greasy (because < 50% of hydrocarbons or waxes) by incorporation of >20% water
- Semisolid emulsion
- Uses emulsifying agent to disperse the aqueous phase in the oily
How do you differentiate creams from ointments?
- Softer and preferred due to easy removal from containers and good spreadability over absorption site
- Creams and ointments provide protective, emollient actions to surface or interior layers of the skin
- Creams can be used for cosmetics and medications
What are the classifications of creams?
- Oil in water (aqueous)
- Water in oil (oily)
What are the characteristics of o/w creams?
- Hydrophilic due to aqueous external phase
- Non-greasy and easily removed by water
- Good topical purpose and suited for oozing wounds by absorbing water
What are examples of hydrophilic creams?
- Vanishing creams
- Foundations
- Hand creams
- Shaving creams
What are the characteristics of w/o creams?
- Composed of small droplets of water dispersed in oily phase
- Difficult to handle and water wash
- Very effective skin moisturizing due to stratum corneum penetration
What are examples of lipophilic creams?
- Cold creams
- Emollient cream
What is the general procedure for making an emulsion?
- Oil-soluble ingredients are mixed by heating temperature to highest-melting ingredient
- Water soluble ingredients are dissolved in water by heating to same temperature as oily phase
- Combine oil and water phase
- Continue mixing (using lower shear) and cool system to room temperature
- Incorporate drug into cream base
How do you combine phases for an o/w emulsion?
Oil phase is added to water phase and mixed vigorously using high shear mixing to form a homogeneous dispersion of small oil droplets within the water phase
How do you combine phases for an w/o emulsion?
Water phase is added to the oil phase
How do you incorporate a cream base if drug is decomposed by heating?
- Drug is added to phase of higher solubility at the beginning of the process
- Drug then is added after emulsion is formed
What are gels?
Semisolid systems consisting of either suspensions made up of small inorganic particles in a liquid solvent or large organic molecules uniformly distributed throughout a liquid solvent
What are classifications of gels by gelling agents?
Inorganic and organic
What is an inorganic gel?
Consist of precipitates of inorganic salts or floccules of small particles of the inorganic salts as gelling agents creating a 2 phase system
What are examples of inorganic gels?
Magnesium hydroxide and Aluminum hydroxide
What is an organic gel?
Use a carbon-based hydrophilic polymer. They are single-phase systems
What are examples of organic gels?
Carbomer, tragacanth, or poloxamer in water system
What are the classifications of gels by solvent phase?
- Hyrdogels
- Organogels
What is the difference between hydrogels and organogels?
- Hydrogels contain water as the main continuous-phase solvent. They contain significant amounts of water but the inorganic salts gelling agents used remain water insoluble.
- Organogels may contain an organic liquid.
What are components of a gel?
- Gelling agents
- Liquid phase
- Drug substance
- Humectants
- Stabilizers
What is the purpose of gelling agents in gel?
Small inorganic particles or polymeric matrix which traps the liquid phase
What is the purpose of liquid phase in a gel?
Solvent or water (vehicle)
What is the purpose of the drug substance in gel?
Dissolved in liquid phase or suspended in the polymeric matrix
What is the purpose of humectants in gel?
Retain water so a skin doesn’t form
What is the purpose of stabilizers in gel?
Prevents microbial contamination
What are examples of natural polymers as gelling agents?
- Tragacanth
- Cellulose derivatives
- Alginates
- Pectin
- Gelatin
- Clays (Bentonite)
What are the characteristics of tragacanth?
- Concentrations between 2 - 5% produce different viscosities
- Prone to microbial contamination
- Tends to form lumps when added to water
How do we minimize lumps when water is added to tragacanth?
- Adding small quantities of tragacanth powder to water while mixing rapidly
- Using wetting agents such as ethanol, glycerol, or propylene glycol
What are the characteristics of cellulose derivatives as gelling agents?
- Neutral and stable gels
- Form clear gels with good film strength when dried on the skin
- Resist microbial attacks
What are examples of cellulose derivatives?
- Methylcellulose
- CMC
What are the characteristics of CMC?
- Produces gels of the medium viscosity grade in concentrations of 4% - 6%.
- Sensitive to pH: The viscosity of CMC gels decrease below pH 5 or above pH 10.
- Glycerin may be added to prevent drying. It is incompatible with ethanol.
What are examples of synthetic polymers as gelling agents?
- Carbomers
- Poloxamers
What are the characteristics of carbomers?
- Are high molecular weight, acrylic acid-based polymers; primarily used in aqueous systems.
- Used as gelling agents at concentrations of 0.5% to 2.0% in water.
- Also, thickening, suspending, and emulsifying in both oral and topical formulations.
- Many carbomers, with viscosity ranges from 0 to 80,000 cPs.