Original Articles
J. Padmapreetha* and K. S. G.
Abstract
The aim of this study to investigate the use of liquisolid technique in improving the dissolution profiles of diacerein in a solid dosage form. This study was designed to improve the dissolution rate of diacerein using liquisolid technique. The liquisolid systems were formulated with PEG 400 as non-volatile liquid vehicle at three different drug concentrations, 40, 45 and 50 % W/W using two different carrier/coating ratio (5 and 10). The empirical method as introduced by spireas and Bolton was applied (1999) strictly to calculate the amounts of carrier and coating materials required to prepare diacerein liquisolid capsules. Quality control tests i.e. disintegration test, drug content and in vitro dissolution test were performed to evaluate each batch of prepared capsules. In vitro dissolution profiles of the liquisolid formulation were studied and compared with conventional formulation. DSC, FTIR and XRD were used to investigate physicochemical interaction between diacerein and the excipients. It was found that liquisolid capsules formulated with PEG 400 at lower drug concentration (40% W/W) produced high dissolution profile than conventional formulation. DSC and XRD revealed that drug particles in liquisolid formulations were completely solubilized and available in the molecularly dispersed state. In conclusion, the liquid vehicle used within diacerein liquisolid formulations enhanced drug dissolution rate.