Designing of anti-acne emulsions containing herbal extracts and assessing their efficacy and unwanted effects in volunteers with mild to moderate acne

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Thesis Type: Postgraduate

Institution Of The Thesis: Yeditepe University, Instıtute Of Health Scıences, Pharmacy, Turkey

Approval Date: 2013

Thesis Language: English

Student: SEBLA ÖZTAN AKTÜRK

Supervisor: Yasemin Uzuner

Abstract:

Acne is a common skin condition that affects most people, especially in adolescence. Although the precise mechanism of acne is not known, four major factors are considered to play important roles in the formation of acne: increased sebum production hyperkeratinization, overgrowth of propionibacterium acnes and inflammation. As a general strategy, anti-acne products are formulated to fight against these four factors. Since acne is a chronic skin disorder, user compliance to the prescribed anti-acne product is very important to get a response of the treatment. Unfortunately, due to the unwanted effects of anti-acne products; such as irritation, dryness, redness, user noncompliance is very common problem for the anti-acne prevention and treatment approaches. Although herbal remedies and several extracts have been used for acne since ancient times, there are limited number of scientific studies which investigated the anti-acne effects of herbal ingredients which could be effective on these four main factors associated with acne. In this study, it was aimed to develop emulsion formulations and investigate the synergistic effects of some herbal extracts incorporated in these formulations. One part of the study focused on the development, characterization and 12 weeks accelerated stability tests of emulsions while the other important part investigated the effectiveness and unwanted effects of the emulsions on volunteers with facial acne with a placebo and reference-benzoyl peroxide (BPO) 5 %-controlled, 8 weeks, double-blind clinical study. Results of the study overall showed that herbal emulsions (complex A and complex B) that were developed by incorporating herbal extract were stable enough with good rheological and sensory properties ensuring easy dispensing and application on the skin without greasiness. The clinical study results showed that, in terms of reduction of acne score and number of acne lesion, the herbal emulsions were more effective than placebo and less effective than BPO 5% and unwanted effects were less than BPO 5%, as expected. Due to a better user compliance, acne-quality of life scores of the clinical study participants were positively affected.