Design and Characterization of Self-Nanoemulsifying Drug Delivery System of Lovastatin

Lovastatin belongs to the class of cholesterol lowering drugs and is the first clinically used statin. It is available as conventional and extended release tablets, but its low aqueous solubility finally escorts it to low oral bioavailability (less than 5 %). Therefore, improvement in aqueous solubility of Lovastatin is the foremost aim. In the present work Self-nanoemulsifying drug delivery systems (SNEDDS) of Lovastatin is being formulated to increase the water solubility. Lovastatin SNEDDS was formulated with various oils, surfactants and co-surfactants and tested for its maximum solubility and drug release. The optimized Lovastatin SNEDDS formulation (F8) has a composition of Acrysol EL 135 as oil phase, Lauro glycol 90 and Capmul MCM as surfactant and co-surfactant respectively. Formulation F8 was found to be best formulation based on evaluation parameters. No drug precipitation or phase separation was observed in the optimized formulation. The particle size of the optimized formulation was found to be 4.9 nm & Z-Average of 71.5 nm indicating all the particles were in the nanometer range. The zeta potential of the optimized SNEDDS formulation was found to be -13.7 mV which comply with the requirement of the zeta potential for stability. The current investigation of nano emulsion may serve as a promising approach for the formulation development of poorly soluble drug Lovastatin, which has undoubtedly proved the potential effectiveness of SNEDDS for formulating Lovastatin with improved solubility and dissolution. Key words: Lovastatin, SNEDDS, Statin, Lauro Glycol 90, Solubility