Food and Nutrition Sciences, 2019, 10, 1212-1235 https://www.scirp.org/journal/fns ISSN Online: 2157-9458 ISSN Print: 2157-944X DOI: 10.4236/fns.2019.1010088 Oct. 29, 2019 1212 Food and Nutrition Sciences Controllable Transdermal Drug Delivery of Theobroma cacao Extract Based Polymeric Hydrogel against Dermal Microbial and Oxidative Damage Shriya Agarwal 1 , Vandana Tyagi 1 , Mugdha Agarwal 1 , Arushi Pant 1 , Harleen Kaur 2 , Rachana 1 , Manisha Singh 1* 1 Department of Biotechnology, Jaypee Institute of Information Technology, Noida, India 2 Amity Institute of Biotechnology, Amity University, Noida, India Abstract Human dermal layers are directly bared to the external environmental adver- sities like pollution, radiation, dust along with various chemical and mechan- ical stress conditions which constantly lead to the oxidative stress, eventually forming free radicals. These conditions also support the dermal microbial in- fections by invading the cutaneous layers. Therefore, the most efficient ap- proach accepted globally to combat these complications is to opt for transdermal application of exogenous antioxidants which helps in reducing the ill effects of oxidative stress and promotes the DNA repair. However, many scientific findings exhibited the potential role of Theobroma cacao for providing efficient skin protection. Theobroma cacao known for its vital procyanidin flavonoids, phenolic compounds, methylxanthines, catechin and epicatechin phytoconstituents with numerous health benefits, besides helping in smoothening and softening the damaged skin. These therapeutic benefits of cocoa phytocompounds are attributed to its anti-inflammatory and anti- oxidative characteristics. This study addresses the fabrication and optimiza- tions of Theobroma cacao extract loaded carbopol hydrogel system for in- creased antioxidative and antimicrobial effects. It was found in the studies that the hydrogel-based T. cacao extract (TCHG) has significantly improved the therapeutic index of the extract, making it more suitable for transdermal application. The optimized hydrogel was further characterized by physico- chemical parameters, SEM analysis and in-vitro release kinetics. The reported findings showed the sustained compound release with comparatively signifi- cant antimicrobial activity of TCHG against microbial (Pseudomonas How to cite this paper: Agarwal, S., Tyagi, V., Agarwal, M., Pant, A., Kaur, H., Racha- na and Singh, M. (2019) Controllable Transdermal Drug Delivery of Theobroma cacao Extract Based Polymeric Hydrogel against Dermal Microbial and Oxidative Damage. Food and Nutrition Sciences, 10, 1212-1235. https://doi.org/10.4236/fns.2019.1010088 Received: September 11, 2019 Accepted: October 26, 2019 Published: October 29, 2019 Copyright © 2019 by author(s) and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY 4.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Open Access