ISSN: 0975 -8542 Journal of Global Pharma Technology Available Online at: www.jgpt.co.in RESEARCH ARTICLE ©2009-2019, JGPT. All Rights Reserved 140 Preparation and Evaluation of Hydrogels Containing Methanolic Extract of Brassica Oleracea ver. Italic Muhammad Nafiz Bin Nadzri 1 , Shahnaz Majeed 1 , Farheen Sami 1 , Mohammad Tabish 2 , Mohammed Tahir Ansari 1* 1. Faculty of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Universiti Kuala Lumpur Royal College of Medicine Perak, Ipoh. 2. Department of Pharmacology, College of medicine, Shaqra University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia - 11961. * Corresponding Author: Mohammed Tahir Ansari Abstract Objective: Herbal medicine usage is increasing nowadays because their usage is acceptable by most people to be safe and produce fewer side effects than synthetic drugs. This present study has been undertaken with the aim to formulate and evaluate herbal gel containing Brassica oleracea ver. italica methanolic extract. Method: The gel formulation was designed by using methanolic extract of Brassica oleracea var. italica, Carbopol 940, propylene glycol, methyl paraben, propyl paraben and required amount of distilled water. PH of skin was maintained by adding tri-ethanolamine drop wise. The prepared herbal gel formulation was subjected to preliminary evaluation such as pH, total phenolic content and total flavonoid content, viscosity, drug diffusion study and anti-inflammatory study. Result: The result of anti-inflammatory study showed that the gels with extract concentration of 1000 µg/ml have comparable anti-inflammatory activity with the Diclofenac sodium (100 µg/ml).Conclusion: Formulation of gel containing B. oleracea var. italica extract is a good attempt as herbal formulation has high demand in the market. Keywords: Brassica oleracea var. italica, Carbopol 940, Hydrogel. Introduction Natural substances have gained major interest in design and development of drug delivery system. The use of metals, fungi, alginates, polysaccharides as formulation or formulation additives have invited a lot of research in health industry [1-9]. The advent of micro and nanotechnology has added an increased potency in application of natural substances for treatment of diseases or as pharmaceutical additives [10, 11]. Family Brassicaceae consists of 350 genera and 3500 species. One of the most important genus in this family is Brassica which include crops and economically important species such as Brassica oleracea L., Brassica napus L and Brassica rapa L. Brassica oleracea which include vegetables and forage forms is the main vegetables species. It includes vegetables such as kale, cabbage, broccoli, Brussel sprouts, cauliflower and others [12]. Broccoli is an edible green plant in the cabbage family whose large flowering head is eaten as a vegetable. The word broccoli comes from the Italian plural of broccoli, which means “the flowering crest of a cabbage” and is the diminutive form of broco, meaning “small nail” or “sprout” [13]. The sprouts refer to the branching habit of broccoli and young edible inflorescences. They are introduced from eastern Mediterranean to the Italy where diversity of broccoli-like vegetables was developed [14]. Broccoli provides many health- promoting properties which attributes to its antioxidant and anti-carcinogenic compounds. It is composed of polyphenols, glucosinolates, sulforaphane and selenium [15]. They are also known to contain a high content of flavonoids, vitamins, and mineral nutrients [16-18]. The pharmacokinetics of broccoli explains that when hydrolysis takes place, glucoraphanin produces many products that include the bioactive isothiocyanate sulforaphane. The percentage of isothiocyanate sulforaphane present in these vegetables varies depending upon the conditions of hydrolysis, food