Abstract: AIM: To investigate the effect of l-men-thol on percutaneous absorption of metronidazole through changing the skin character in rabbits.METHODS: Us-ing rabbit skin with different character as transdermal bar-rier, and l-menthol as transdermal enhancer, the ab-sorbance of metronidazole was determined with a two-cells diffusion apparatus in vitro, and its permeability was fig-ured out. RESULTS: The transdermal action of l-men-thol on percutaneous absorption of metronidazole was very evident when the corneum was eliminated;l-menthol and azone could increase the desposit function of metronida-zole in the intact skin, but had no effect on the skinwith-out corneum. The result also showed that the percuta-neous absorption and intact skins desposit function of metronidazole had no difference between l-menthol and a-zone. CONCLUSION: L-menthol can increase the per-cutaneous absorption of metronidazole. The site of the ac-tion is mainly the corneum which has desposit function.

Key words: l-menthol, metronidazole, percuta-neous absorption, permeability, deposit function