Orodispersible Films of Punicalagin from Pomegranate Peel-A Novel Drug Delivery System for Dental Caries Prevention

摘要

Dental caries prevention using herbal products is one of the fast growing researches in dentistry. In the present study we aimed at formulating orodispersible antibacterial films using punicalagin, an antibacterial ellagitanin found abundantly in pomegranate peel, targeted against Streptococcus mutans causing dental caries. Punicalagin was isolated from methanolic extract of pomegranate peel using Sephadex LH-20 resin by gel chromatog-raphy. Its antibacterial activity was checked against Streptococcus mutans using well-diffusion method and the material was found to be antibacterial with minimum inhibitory concentration of 2.5%. The 2.5% punicalagin was used in formulating orodispersible films with extended release time. Four different formulations namely F1 to F4 formulations were prepared by varying polymer-excipient ratio and assessed for mechanical properties, of which F4 showed optimal mechanical properties and was used for further studies. In present study, films have been made to slowly release punicalagin by varying polymer-excipient ratio against conventional flash releasing films to ensure sufficient bacteria-punicalagin interaction time within oral cavity. The formulations showed a disintegration time of 15.49 min and dissolution time of 30 min. The films did not cause significant erythrolysis in fresh chicken blood and did not alter the morphology of developing chick embryos up on examining 12-day-old chick embryos. The study therefore concludes that punicalagin, a natural antibacterial source can be used in formulating slow releasing orodispersible films which are better over chemical formulations specially mouth washes as stay-in-mouth time of these films are extended ensuring good antibacterial activity with goodorganoleptic properties.