Abstract
Clenbuterol, a selective ${\beta}_2-adrenergic$ receptor stimulant, has been introduced as a potent bronchodilator for patients with bronchial asthma, chronic bronchitis and pulmonary emphysema. For the purpose of developing a transdermal preparation for clenbuterol, we attempted to select an optimal solvent system and permeation enhancer among fatty acids and fatty alcohols which are known to accelerate the penetration of various drugs in permeation experiments using hairless mouse skin and Franz diffusion cell. Apparent partition coefficient of clenbuterol was increased as pH of buffer solution was increased and solubility of clenbuterol was increased as the percent of propylene glycol(PG) in buffer solution(pH 10) was increased. Permeability of clenbuterol from different buffer(pH 10)/PG solvent mixtures was decreased as the percent of PG in pH 10 buffer solution was increased and among the various enhancers studied, lauryl alcohol was found to be the most effective enhancer, increasing the permeability of clenbuterol approximately 76-fold compared with control. Lauryl alcohol$(0{\sim}2%)$ enhanced the permeability of clenbuterol concentration-dependently. In this study, the optimal solvent system for the penetration of clenbuterol was found to be 50/50 buffer(pH 10)/PG solvent mixture containing 2% lauryl alcohol.