| THE ARTICLE TALKS ABOUT: |
- This articles explores the delivery mechanism for minoxidil and
its effectiveness.
- Minoxidil can help in the treatment of hair loss. It is usually
administered as a 2% solution combined with 60% ethanol, 20% propylene glycol and about
20% water.
- For those who are not familiar with the technical terminologies,
ethanol is basically alcohol, and propylene glycol is a kind of hygroscopic viscous liquid
used especially as an antifreeze and solvent in brake fluid.
- The issue is whether the current mechanism of delivery is in fact
the most effective and allows maximum penetration to the scalp.
- since minoxidil is not entirely soluble in water, the focus of
the study is geared toward analyzing the penetration effect of ethanol and propylene
glycol.
- Based on experiments on mice, penetration of minoxidil increases
with increasing ethanol fraction in the solution. Penetration peaks when solution is made
up of 90% ethanol. However, duration of the experiment will also have an effect on the
strength of penetration. Also, reducing the amount of application will have different
results, depending on the formulation used.
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