Formulation Development and Evaluation of Herbal Antifungal Cream by using Psidium guajava Leaf Extract

Abstract

Fungal infection is one of the major health concerns globally and varies from superficial to systemic infections. Psidium guajava Linn. leaf extract showed antifungal activity against wide range of fungi. The present research focuses on the development and investigation of cream with guava leaf extract. Ethanolic, methanolic and hydroalcoholic leaf extract was evaluated for total flavonoid content, thin layer chromatography (TLC), high-performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) and antifungal activity against Candida albicans. Further cream-based extract was optimized using 32 factorial designs. Beeswax and tween 80 were selected as the independent variables whose impact was studied on viscosity and %cumulative drug diffusion. Optimized cream was characterized by appearance, pH, washability, spreadability, in-vitro drug diffusion study, antifungal test and skin irritation test on wistar rats. The hydroalcoholic extract showed the highest content of flavonoids and a better zone of inhibition (27 ± 1 mm). HPTLC results confirmed the presence of essential flavonoids. Cream with 6% beeswax and 5% tween 80 with a viscosity 10420 cP and 70% drug diffusion was considered as optimized batch. The prepared cream showed satisfactory results for all evaluated parameters. The antifungal test showed the highest zone of inhibition for cream (25 mm) in comparison to standard formulation (23 mm). No any sign of skin irritation was observed. The prepared formulation is the best suitable alternative for the available topical antifungal formulation