Research Article
Altaf M.A, Imran A. Sholapu
Abstract
A new oral drug delivery system was developed utilizing both the concepts ofcontrolled release and mucoadhesiveness, in order to obtain a unique drug delivery system which could remain in stomach and control the drug release for longer period of time. Gastro-retentive beads of captopril were prepared by orifice ionicgelation method in 1:1 and 9:1 ratio of alginate along with mucoadhesive polymers viz; hydroxyl propyl methyl cellulose, carbopol 934P, chitosan and cellulose acetate phthalate. The prepared beads were subjected for various evaluation parameters. The percentage drug content was found to be in the range of 59.4 - 91.9 percent forbeads. It was observed that as the alginate proportion was increased, the average size of beads also increased. Photomicrographs revealed that the beads were spherical in shape. Alginate-chitosan (9:1) beads showed excellent microencapsulation efficiency (89.7 percent). Alginate-Carbopol 934P exhibited maximum efficiency of mucoadhesion in 0.1 N HCl (44 percent for 1:1 and 22 percent for 9:1) at the end of 8 hours, whereas least mucoadhesion was observed with alginate-Cellulose acetate phthalate beads. The in vitro release studies were carried out in 0.1 N hydrochloric acid and the release were found to be more sustained with Alginate-chitosan beads (9:1) than Alginate-Carbopol 934P (1:1) beads. The alginate-cellulose acetate phthalate beads showed the better sustained release as compared to all other alginate-polymer combinations. Regression analysis showed that the release followed zero order kinetics in 0.1 N HCl (pH 1.2).