European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF FLOATING MICROSPHERES OF ACYCLOVIR BY SOLVENT EVAPORATION TECHNIQUE

Pramod Kharel*, Sujan Neupane and Narendra Chand

ABSTRACT

The purpose of the current work is to formulate the floating microspheres of acyclovir, an antiviral drug, with an intention to prolong the residence time in the stomach and to achieve the prolonged release of the drug. A 32 full factorial design and solvent evaporation technique was utilized to formulate the floating microspheres. The formulated microspheres were evaluated for the various post formulation parameters including percentage encapsulation and in vitro drug release. The average particle size was found to be 175 µm with the percentage drug entrapment efficiency ranging from 64.92±0.763 % to 72.19±0.335% w/w. The total floating time of the microsphere was more than about 12 hours with the floating lag time ranging from 17.33±0.577 seconds to 39.66±2.081 secconds. The in vitro drug release showed that the acyclovir was released from the formulation at slow rate and sustained for more than about 12 hours. From the conducted study, it can be presumed that the fabrication of floating microspheres can successfully exert sustained release of the drug.

Keywords: Acyclovir, Solvent evaporation, Floating microspheres, Sustained release, in vitro drug release.