INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES,
ENGINEERING & PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCES

Fungus spores are widely distributed in the environment. Fungi can live on dead tissues like hairs and nails. Continuous exposure of nail to warm and moist conditions leads to nail infections. Human nail is an excellent barrier against the ingress of foreign material but as a consequence it also prevents effective topical treatment of ungal disorders. When infection resides in nail plate or nail bed or both, therapeutic concentrations of drug must be achieved in the nail bed for treatment to be effective. Topical nail preparations like nail lacquers are an integral part of today’s beauty treatment. It not only protects the nail plate but also imparts color and luster to it. Recently medicated lacquers specially designed for nail disease have striked the formulation field as transungal drug delivery system. These nail lacquers are effective for localized action as monotherapy in treatment of superficial, distal and subungal disease where oral delivery would lead to adverse systemic events. The present article is an overview of detailed anatomy and physiology of nail, different nail disorders, ways to enhance the permeability across nail and formulation, characterization of nail lacquers for transungal drug delivery.