Abstract

The potential uses of extracting mucilage from plant sources have led to much research in this field. One possible source of mucilage for agri-food-pharma utilization is the fruits of the Phoenix dactylifera, date palm. For developing the plaster gel loaded with nicotine, we, therefore, applied the mucilage from date palm fruits as a gel-forming agent. Other components, however, might be added to increase its properties. Response surface methodology was used for quantifying the effects of a range of variables (date palm mucilage, PVA, and glycerin) on physicochemical parameters (pH value, viscosity, drying time, ultimate tensile strength, elongation at break, and drug content). The optimal formulation was 3.5%:1.8%:30% w/w. The resultants were 6.14 ± 0.05, 45.67 ± 1.75 cp, 14.77 ± 1.19 min, 26.83 ± 2.15 MPa, 38.20 ± 2.39%, and 9.51 ± 0.19 mg/g, respectively. The optimal formulation of nicotine-containing plaster gel had a semicrystalline structure as it was derived from plant mucilage. It was immediately obvious that the formulation might control the release of nicotine, indicating first-order kinetic release. The J<inf>ss</inf> and K<inf>p</inf> values were 0.30 ± 0.01 mg/cm²/h and 3.13 ± 0.11 × 10⁻² cm/h, respectively, indicating a maximum nicotine permeation of 78.82 ± 13.57%. When stored in a refrigerator as compared to room temperature, the nicotine-loading plaster gel thus showed excellent physical stability.