ionotropic-gelation.

  This present investigation deals with the design, development and evaluation of multiple unit beads containing gliclazide. The various gliclazide beads were prepared by ionotropic gelatin technique using sodium alginate, guargum and magnesium stearate in different ratios. These multiple unit beads were evaluated for size analysis, drug entrapment efficiency and in vitro drug release in simulated gastric fluids (pH 1.2) and phosphate buffer (pH 7.4). All these formulated showed sustained in vitro drug release in simulated gastric fluid over 6 hours. The gliclazide release was found to be more sustaining with the reduction of guargum content in the formulation .The drug release pattern of these multiple unit gliclazide beads (F-6 and F-7) were correlated well with first order model where F-1, F-4, F-5, F-8 and F-2 toF-3 was correlated well with Korsmeyer-Peppas model and Higuchi model with  non-Fickian diffusion mechanism. All the experimental results showed that the gliclazide loaded beads successfully sustain the drug release along with improve the oral bioavailability of candidate drug.