the study of silymarin release kinetic in free and hydrogel bound micellar forms: a qualitative and quantitative analysis using rp-hplc

Silymarin is a safe herbal medicine; however, it has some undesirable properties such as short half-life and poor aqueous solubility. to the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to report utilizing a dual-drug delivery system (ddds) to enhance the release profile of silymarin from both micelles and hydrogels. in this experimental study, the release profile of micellar silymarin and micelle-hydrogel bounded silymarin during 21 days was examined using knauer k2600a liquid chromatography. the calibration curve was plotted using the peak-areas of the silymarin at different concentrations.the rp-c18 column allowed a good separation of the components of standard silymarin.lod and loq were 16.5 and 55.02 μg/ml, respectively. the in vitro release profiles of the two compounds showed a rapid release of silymarin, especially in the absence of hydrogel. the cumulative release graph revealed that the hydrogel- bound form has more constant release kinetics than the free micelle form; this means that the hydrogel-bound form may sustain for longer durations.in this study, a dualdrug delivery system based on hydrogel/micelle composites was introduced. the results showed that the puramatrix hydrogel plays an important role in the constant release of silymarin. furthermore, the rp- hplc method presented in this study can be used by other researchers to overcome the difficulties associated with the in vitro separation and quantification of silymarin.