Development and Evaluation of Mucoadhesive Algino-HPMC Microparticulate System of Aceclofenac for Oral Sustained Drug Delivery

Micro-particulate drug delivery of aceclofenac was prepared by ion gelation technique using a blend of sodium alginate and HPMC as release retardant. The gastric residence of conventional dosage form is typically short which transit rapidly through the small intestine in not more than 3h, thus rapid gastrointestinal (GI) transit phenomenon may consequently lead to reduction in the extent of absorption of various drugs. The present study was to develop mucoadhesive microsphere of aceclofenac and evaluate the effect of polymer concentration on drug release kinetics. The formulations were investigated for various evaluation parameters like particle size, flow behavior, swelling properties, surface morphology study by SEM and in vitro drug release etc. All the formulations showed good flow behavior as compared to the pure drug. It was observed that by increasing the polymer concentration the drug release of all the formulations were gradually decreased and the optimized formulation (F7) was able to sustain the drug release for 12 hours. The drug release mechanism showed that all the formulations revealed higher coefficient of determination (R2 = 0.992 to 0.999) with the Korsmeyer-Peppas model whereas release exponent value (n) ranged from 0.572 to 0.843. So, It can be suggested all the formulations follow anomalous non-Flicking diffusion mechanism.SEM study has revealed that the spheres were almost spherical in shape with rough outer surface. Ex- vivo mucoadhesion study depicts that when the polymer concentration was increased the extent of mucoadhesion also increased. DSC and FTIR study showed that the major peaks of pure drug were almost intact in the formulation. Therefore, it was concluded that aceclofenac loaded alginate-HPMC microspheres can be prepared by gelation technique and used for sustaining the drug release for prolonged period of time.