Preparation, Characterization, and Evaluation of β-Cyclodextrin Inclusion Hydrogel Films Based on Dates Carboxymethyl Cellulose for Hydrophobic Drug Delivery.

This work investigates the carboxymethylcellulose (CMC)-dates (Dt) hydrogel films (HFs) for the controlled delivery of hydrophobic drugs, using citric acid (CA) as a nontoxic cross-linking agent. The model drug Econazole (ECN) was loaded into HFs, and drug release was studied at pH 7.4. The HFs were evaluated for β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) content, carboxyl content, swelling ratio, drug loading, drug release, and in vivo anti-inflammatory activity. These films were characterized using ATR-FTIR, thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (SEM/EDX), and atomic force microscopy (AFM) for morphological measurements. Results revealed that the HFs with high carboxyl content exhibit maximum swelling and high drug loading. The incorporation of β-CD helped to retard the release of ECN from the HFs. Our findings indicate that HFs F3 and F4 with high Dt concentrations reduce the edematous response by 92% ± 5.07% and 89% ± 3.69%, respectively. Altogether, our findings show that CMC-Dt HFs are suitable for the delivery of non-soluble weak bases and have potential for wound-healing applications. The in vivo investigation demonstrated that the HFs exhibit significant anti-inflammatory characteristics.