FORMULATION AND EVALUATION OF AQUEOUS EXTRACT OF GARLIC (ALLIUM SATIVUM) AS A PESSARY

A pessary is a type of suppository that is meant to be inserted into the vagina for treatment of local or systemic diseases, in folk medicine garlic bulb is inserted into vagina for treatment of candidiasis. The aim of this work is to formulate and evaluate aqueous extract of garlic as a pessary. Aqueous garlic (Allium sativum) extract was obtained from the garlic bulbs. The pessary was formulated using the pouring method and cocoa butter as a base. The formulated pessaries were evaluated using physical appearance, crushing strength test, disintegration and dissolution times tests as well as content uniformity. The visual examination showed brilliant and smooth surfaced, consistently bullet shaped, light brown colour and mild garlic odour. The results of crushing strength (3.96 +/- 0.92 KgF), disintegration time (5.17 +/- 0.17 min) and content uniformity (96.03 +/- 7.26 %) were all within the normal limits. The result obtained from the dissolution time test showed that the pessary dissolved within 30 min. The results indicated that aqueous garlic extract can be formulated into a pessary.