Development and In Vitro Evaluation of Hydrodynamically Balanced System for Aceclofenac Delivery

This work investigates the development and evaluation of hydrodynamically balanced systems (HBSs) of aceclofenac as single unit capsule. The various HBS capsules were formulated by physical blending of aceclofenac with carbopol 934, hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose, pectin in different ratios. These HBS capsules were evaluated for weight uniformity, drug content uniformity, in vitro floating behavior and drug release in simulated gastric fluids (pH 1.2). All these formulated HBS capsules containing aceclofenac were floated well over 5 hours with no floating lag time, and also showed sustained in vitro drug release in simulated gastric fluid over 5 hours. The aceclofenac release was found to be more sustaining with the addition of polymer i.e. carbopol 934 and hydroxyl propyl methyl cellulose. The drug release pattern of these aceclofenac HBS capsules (F-1, F-4, F-5 and F-8) were correlated well with first order model where F-6 to F-7 and F-2 toF-3 was correlated well with Higuchi model Korsmeyer-Peppas model with Fickian diffusion mechanism. All the experimental results showed that the aceclofenac HBS capsule successfully sustain the drug release along with improve the oral bioavailability of candidate drug.