Amphiphilic alginate as a drug release vehicle for water-insoluble drugs

摘要

A preliminary study on the hydrophobic modified alginate (HM-alginate) as the drug delivery system for the model water-insoluble drugs, clofazimine and Amphotericin B was performed. It was found that HM-alginate can significantly increase the solubilities of these two drugs. The apparent water solubilities of clofazimine and Amphotericin B increased up to 1100 and 160 times, respectively, in aqueous solutions containing HM-alginate. The presence of sodium chloride in polymer solution decreased the solubilities of the drugs, compared to the salt-free solutions. HM-alginate also exhibited excellent sustained release effect, which increased with concentration. The type of HM-alginate, which we used herein, might have potential applications as water-insoluble drug delivery carrier.