Design and in vitro evaluation of controlled release alginate beads of diltiazem hydrochloride

摘要

Objective:Oral slow and sustained release drug delivery system can release their drug content with a controlled manner,producing a desirable blood serum level,reduction in drug toxicity and improving the patient compli-ance by prolonging dosing intervals.The major drawback of orally administered drug like diltiazem as a calcium channel blocker for the treatment of angina pectoris,arrhythmia and hypertension.Its has higher aqueous solu-bility and shorter elimination half-life.Methods:To overcome these drawbacks associated with diltiazem,an attempt has been made to develop a sustained release dosage form of diltiazem embedded alginate microbeads by ionotropic gelation technique employing various concentrations of polymer and keeping the drug concentra-tion constant.Results:The beads were characterized for its particle size,drug content and in vitro release stud-ies.The results revealed that the surface adhering drug was found to release immediately and a steady state of release was obtained up to 12 h from all the batches.The results indicated there was an inverse relationship be-tween the concentration of alginate and drug release.The drug release was found to follow non-fickian diffusion obeying first order kinetics.Conclusion:The developed alginate microbeads offered a sustained release of dilti-azem.Hence,the formulated microbeads were found to be potential,cost effective,possess satisfactory in vitro release studies.