Abstract : Objective：To study the preparation methods of glycyrrhetinic acid ethosomes hydrogel patch and evaluate the laws and characteristics of transdermal drug delivery in vitro. Method： Glycyrrhetinic acid ethosomes was prepared by ethanol infusion method. Its entrapment efficiency, size and surface potential were investigated, and it was then used to prepare the hydrogel patch. The amount of penetrated glycyrrhetinic acid was determined by HPLC on modified Franz diffusion cells, and then the laws and characteristics of glycyrrhetinic acid ethosomes hydrogel patch transdermal drug delivery in vitro were evaluated. Results: Glycyrrhetinic acid ethosome has an appearance of spherical or ellipsoidal, and with a layered structure; its encapsulation efficiency for glycyrrhetinic acid was 75.63 ± 1.86%, particle size was 106.2 ± 20.54nm, and the surface potential was - 41.3 ± 2.8mV. The percutaneous rate and accumulative infiltration quantity of glycyrrhetinic acid ethosomes hydro gel patch are significantly higher than glycyrrhetinic acid hydro gel patch. The accumulative infiltration quantity of glycyrrhetinic acid ethosomes hdrogel is 5.5 times larger than that of glycyrrhetinic acid hydrogel patch, which shows an extremely significant (t-test, P﹤0.05). Conclusion：Glycyrrhetinic acid ethosomes can significantly improve hydrogel patch transdermal delivery effects, and show that ethosomes hydrogel patch is a new ideal form of transdermal for glycyrrhetinic acid. Keyword： Glycyrrhetinic acid； Ethosome；Hydrogel patch； Transdermal drug delivery