Flutamide (FLT) is an antiandrogen drug for the treatment of prostate cancer. It has the drawback of poor water solubility and needs enhancement of its dissolution rate in simulated gastric fluids. Hence, it is prepared as selfnanoemulsifying drug delivery systems (SNEDDS) with an aim to enhance its dissolution rate. The objectives of the study are to develop SNEDDS of FLT and to characterize for particle size, self-nanoemulsification, and dissolution enhancement. Solubility of FLT was determined in various oils, surfactants, and cosurfactants. Sesame oil was selected as an oil phase, Tween 20 as surfactant, and PEG400 as cosurfactant due to their higher solubilization effect. Various formulations were prepared by simple mixing followed by vortexing. From studies, the optimized SNEDDS formulation was composed of FLT (8.04% w/w), sesame oil (24.12% w/w), Tween 20 (53.38% w/w), and PEG400 (14.46% w/w). The selected SNEDDS could be self-emulsified without precipitation upon simple mixing. The mean particle size of the SNEDDS was 148.7 nm and percent drug content was 99.66. The dissolution rate of FLT from SNEDDS was faster and higher in three different dissolution media such as 2% sodium lauryl sulfate (97.85%), simulated gastric fluid (0.1 N HCl containing 0.5% Tween 20) (95.71%), and simulated intestinal fluid (pH 6.8 buffer) (96.21%).
Key words: Dissolution rate, droplet size, self-nanoemulsification, SNEDDS, zeta potential.
