Exploring Elastic Lipid Nanovesicles for Enhanced Skin Permeation of Whole Plant Extract: A Comprehensive Investigation

Abstract

A new method is developed using elastic lipid nanovesicles (ELNs) loaded with ethanolic extract of Lantana camara (LC) to enhance skin permeation of plant actives. The ELNs contained cholesterol, 1, 2-distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine, span 80, and tween 80. Firstly, 15 formulations were produced to examine critical factors likely affecting formulation characteristics. In addition, surface characteristics, vesicle size, polydispersity index, zeta potential, degree of deformability, and % entrapment efficiency (% EE) of ELN were examined. As a significant parameter, skin permeation was measured (using Start-M; it highly resembles human skin). The influence of size, hydrophilic–lipophilic balance (HLB), and surface ratio were vital to permeation through Start-M. In particular, the % LC extract permeation decreased at more extensive size ranges, 400, and 350–450 nm. In contrast, the % LC extract permeation increased significantly at smaller size ranges, such as 200 and 100 nm. More than 75% of the LC extract was permeated within 8 h when the surfactant ratio was (span 80:tween 80; 25%:75%). Permeation studies conducted based on HLB values revealed that 78% of LC extract was permeated in 8 h when HLB was 12.2, and that permeation decreased with an increase in HLB. Cell viability assay using SK-MEL-37 cells (skin cancer) revealed that ELN reduced the viability by ~80% in 24 h, further validating the formulation. Future research could investigate the long-term safety and therapeutic potential of these ELNs in clinical settings and their effectiveness in delivering other plant-based extracts for transdermal applications via ELNs.