Development and evaluation of chitosan-coated virgin coconut oil-asiatic acid-loaded nanoemulgel for enhanced wound management

Manohar Mahadev; Shruthi Ballal; Amitha Shetty; Akhilesh Dubey; Shilpa S Shetty; Srinivas Hebbar; Sally A El-Zahaby

doi:10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2025.140097

Development and evaluation of chitosan-coated virgin coconut oil-asiatic acid-loaded nanoemulgel for enhanced wound management

Int J Biol Macromol. 2025 Jan 21:299:140097. doi: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2025.140097. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Manohar Mahadev¹, Shruthi Ballal¹, Amitha Shetty¹, Akhilesh Dubey², Shilpa S Shetty³, Srinivas Hebbar⁴, Sally A El-Zahaby⁵

Affiliations

¹ Nitte (Deemed to be University), NGSM Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Department of Pharmaceutics, Mangaluru 575018, India.
² Nitte (Deemed to be University), NGSM Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Department of Pharmaceutics, Mangaluru 575018, India. Electronic address: akhilesh@nitte.edu.in.
³ Nitte (Deemed to be University), KS Hegde Medical Academy, (KSHEMA), Central Research Laboratory, Cellomics, Lipidomics and Molecular Genetics Division, Mangalore, India.
⁴ Department of Pharmaceutics, Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, India.
⁵ Department of Pharmaceutics and Industrial Pharmacy, Pharm D Program, Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology (E-JUST), Alexandria, Egypt.

PMID: 39848368
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2025.140097

Abstract

Wound management remains a significant challenge due to complications such as delayed healing and microbial infections, particularly in the conditions like diabetes mellitus, vascular disorders, and immunosuppression. This study aimed to develop a chitosan-coated virgin coconut oil-asiatic acid-loaded nanoemulsion gel (CS-ASA-NEG) to enhance wound healing outcomes. A central composite design (CCD) was employed using Design Expert 11 software to optimize the nanoemulsion formulation, with ternary phase diagrams (TPD) evaluating stable regions for Tween 20: Span 80 (T20:S80) ratios. The optimized 4:1 ratio yielded a nanoemulsion with a globule size of 131.80 ± 0.33 nm and an entrapment efficiency (EE%) of 94.86 ± 0.05 %. Stability studies confirmed the formulation's robustness at 5 °C and 25 °C for 28 days. The nanoemulgel was prepared using 1 % carbopol gel, with a pH of 5.50 ± 0.04 and viscosity of 16,481 ± 0.01 cP, making it suitable for topical use. Skin permeation and irritation studies indicated superior efficacy, with a maximum flux (Jmax) of 159.10 ± 0.08 μg/cm²/h, outperforming marketed gels. The formulation achieved a wound contraction rate of 99.86 ± 0.24 % by day 20, highlighting the synergistic benefits of asiatic acid, virgin coconut oil, and chitosan. CS-ASA-NEG offers a promising approach to improve wound healing.

Keywords: Asiatic acid; Chitosan; Nanoemulgel; Wound healing.