Characterizations of Liquid Crystals as A Transdermal Drug Delivery System

The outermost layer of skin, the stratum corneum, has a role as the primary barrier against water evaporation from the body and drug entry through skin into the body. Thus, overcoming the stratum corneum barrier is important to develop transdermal drug delivery systems. Transdermal administration of drugs represents an excellent alternative to conventional pharmaceutical dosage forms. However, insufficient penetration of the active pharmaceutical substance through the skin is a common problem. Thus, in the present review we discussed the characterizations and the skin permeation enhancing ability of liquid crystal (LC) topical formulations.