Narayana Swamy VB

The present investigation was aimed at estimating the effectiveness of the edible mucilage of Borassus flabellifer fruit as a polymer in the development of a gastric floating dosage form of ranitidine HCl. Borassus flabellifer fruit mucilage, was shown to aid in the formulation of floating tablets. In the present study, it was used as a pharmaceutical excipient and its efficiency was compared with HPMC in the formulation of ranitidine HCl floating tablets. Sodium bicarbonate was used as a gas-generating agent, ranitidine HCl  tablets were prepared by direct compression method. The prepared tablets were evaluated for physicochemical parameters and found to be within range viz. hardness, swelling index, floating capacity, thickness, and weight variation. Further, tablets were evaluated for in vitro release characteristics for 12 hrs. All in all, the formulation F3 manifested a prolonged release of the active ingredient. The optimized formulation F3 followed higuchi’s mechanism. Based on the diffusion exponent (n) value, the drug release was found to be diffusion controlled. From the study, it was evident that the mucilage manifested all the characteristics of a good pharmaceutical excipient that can be used for the formulation of floating tablets.

  The present study was undertaken to investigate the release retardant potential of Borassus flabellifer mucilage in tablet formulations. In the present study six batches of diclofenac sodium matrix tablets were prepared by wet granulation method with different concentrations of BFM (2.5, 5, 7.5,10 and 12.5%w/w) and compared with guar gum as standard release retardant polymer. The tablets had uniform physical appearance, average weight, drug content, and adequate hardness. The results of in vitro release revealed that as the proportion of mucilage in the matrix was increased there was a corresponding decrease in the release of drug. Among the formulations studied formulation F5 containing BFM in the concentration of 12.5% showed sustained and required dissolution profile of drug for 12hrs with cumulative percent release of 98%. Further, the matrix tablets were found to release the drug by diffusion coupled with erosion mechanism. The swelling studies revealed that, as the proportion of mucilage in tablets was increased, there was a corresponding increase in percent swelling of tablets. The SEM photomicrographs showed both pores and gelling structures were present on the surface of tablets indicates the combination of diffusion and erosion mechanism in the release of diclofenac. No chemical interaction between drug, mucilage and mixture of mucilage/drug was seen as confirmed by DSC and IR studies. Optimized formulation (F5) showed no change in physical appearance, drug content, or in dissolution pattern after storage at 40±2°C and 75±5% RH for 3 months.

Conventional drug therapy requires periodic doses of therapeutic agents. These agents are formulated to produce maximum stability, activity and bioavailability.  Floating drug delivery systems (FDDS) have a bulk density less than gastric fluids and so remain buoyant in the stomach without affecting gastric emptying rate for a prolonged period of time. While the system is floating on the gastric contents drug is released slowly at the desired rate from the system. The present study mainly focuses on the development and evaluation effervescent based floating matrix tablet of famotidine. This oral drug delivery offers several advantages over the standard conventional oral dosage forms. Effervescent based floating matrix tablet of famotidine was prepared using sodium bicarbonate as effervescent agent and by incorporating hydrophobic agent stearic acid which retards the drug release and allow the dosage form to float on gastric fluid for several hrs. Then the tablet was evaluated for hardness, friability, drug content and in vitro drug release. On the basis of the preliminary trials, a 32 full factorial design was employed to study the effect of independent variables, HPMC K4M: Carbopol 934P ratio (X1) and concentration of effervescent agent (X2) on dependent variables like floating lag time, Q4 and Q8. The best batch (F3) exhibited optimum floating lag time (16 sec), drug content (98.94%), Q4 (54.36 %), Q8 (93.98%) and similarity factor (83.92). The controlled release of famotidine was observed and good fit to the zero order was demonstrated.