Release and antimicrobial activity of silver sulphadiazine from different creams.

The release and antimicrobial activity of silver sulphadiazine from five different creams were studied: unguentum emulsificans aquosum, unguentum hydrophylicum non ionogenicum, paraffin cream (15 per cent), a homemade preparation and a commercially available preparation (Flamazine). A diffusion cell was used to measure the release and the agar well diffusion technique to determine the antibacterial activity of the silver sulphadiazine released. The paraffin cream (15 per cent) preparation had the highest release rate, followed by the homemade cream and the commercially available cream. The antibacterial activity ran parallel with the release results. This study shows the silver sulphadiazine paraffin cream to be superior to the other four preparations, including the commercially available silver sulphadiazine cream, using release and antibacterial activity as criteria.