Borassus flabellifer fruit mucilage

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.