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Question

Posted on: March 6 2013

Next gel gives us problems: Diprofylline 15 g Ruscustinctuur 3 G diphenhydramine HCl 300 mg Triamcinolone 10 mg Na Heparin 37,500 UI PF 1 gel AD 100 g

< br/> Carbopol gel being incompatible with diphenhydramine HCL we elected methyl cellulose gel FN VI But after three days small white crystals are formed, which are growing.

Answer

Methyl cellulosic gel, although little used, seems a good choice. Given you helpfull of a precipitate, which forms, I suppose the gel is initially clear and so the triamcinolone is dissolved? The precipitation is presumably diphenhydramine base. Indeed a solution with 1% diprofylline gives a pH vfan about 7. And in the gel we find 15 g diprofylline!

I see two possibilities to avoid this precipitation. One could lightly acidifying with a small amount of diluted acetic acid and set a pH of about 5.5. I hope that the added quantity is limited so that there is no adverse effect on the other components. Another approach consists of adding a small amount of alcohol, e.g. 10 à 20 ml, to try to bring the diphenhydramine back into solution. But in this case, methyl cellulose is not a good choice, given the incompatibility with alcohol. Therefore, I would replace it with 4 G hydroxyprpopylcellulose (Klucel GF).