Now a day transdermal drug deliveries are increasing rapidly for the treatment of various diseases so the present study was conducted on different penetration enhancers for permeation of antidiabetic drug, glipizide (sulfonyl urea derivative) through skin. Different types of penetration enhancers such as terpenes and terpenoids, pyrrolidones, oxazolidinones, fatty acids etc are used for permeation enhancement of different drug molecule according to their chemical and physical nature. The experimental data demonstrated that in all penetration enhancers used in the study the N-methyl-2-pyrolidone significantly enhanced the flux of glipizide across the skin. Propylene glycol showed less permeability than control. This may be due to less partitioning of drug to stratum corneum from propylene glycol than control. Propylene glycol appears to have a protective effect on skin with respect to reducing barrier damage. After N-methyl-2-pyrolidone, oleic acid significantly increases the flux.
