Understanding the Incorporation and Release of Salicylic Acid in Metal‐Organic Frameworks for Topical Administration

Abstract Although metal‐organic frameworks (MOFs) have been widely demonstrated to be great candidates for drug delivery applications, they have been mainly proposed for the intravenous route. Here, eight highly porous benchmarked MOFs, with different topologies and structures, are proposed for the topical delivery of salicylic acid (SA), an important, but highly reactive and unstable, therapeutically active metabolite of aspirin. The microporous Zr aminoterephthalate UiO‐66‐NH 2 was selected as the most promising SA carrier, achieving important loadings (12.1 wt.%). Finally, the SA delivery process was studied under simulated cutaneous conditions (aqueous media at 37 °C), reaching a plateau in 6 h (with ∼64 % or ∼105.6 mg of released SA per g of UiO‐66‐NH 2 ). These results demonstrate the suitability of UiO‐66‐NH 2 for the topical controlled release of SA, making this formulation a promising candidate for the development of new devices for skin treatment.