European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

FORMULATION AND EVALUATION OF NORFLOXACIN MUCOADHESIVE MICROSPHERES USING OKRA GUM

Punati Narendra, Rahul C., Maheboob, Shankar Gouda, M. Akkhila, Pradnya B. Patil*, Ayesha Sultana, Sarfaraz MD and H. Doddayya

ABSTRACT

The immobilisation of drug in the hydrogels has proven to be of great utility in pharmaceutical applications. Oral controlled drug delivery system represents the most popular form of sustained drug delivery system as microspheres using Alginate- okra gum, calcium gel. The present study is to formulate and evaluate alginate and okra gum microspheres of Norfloxacin in different concentrations (ratios) adopting ionotropic gelation technique. The microspheres were characterised for morphology, size, drug content, loading efficiency, drug-polymer interactions, swelling ratio (index) and in-vitro release studies. In present study Microencapsulation of water insoluble drugs using hydrophilic polymer like sodium alginate, natural gum (okra gum) which moisturise and swell in contact with aqueous media, are becoming extremely popular in controlling the release of water insoluble drug. Norfloxacin is a synthetic broad-spectrum antibacterial drug used in the treatment of respiratory, biliary and urinary tract infections. Norfloxacin has short half-life of 3 to 4 hrs requires multiple administration of drug leads to fluctuations in plasma concentration. Based on dose related, renal toxicity, seizures, nausea and vomiting with Norfloxacin make it an appropriate candidate for the sustained release. Obtained microspheres showed good flow properties, spherical in shape with uniform surface morphology with their size range of 761.2 ± 1.30 to 971.4 ± 1.06 μm. The drug content was uniform and reproducible in each batch of microspheres. Overall encapsulation efficiencies were in the range of 82.0 ± 0.11 to 90.1 ± 0.08 %. FTIR studies revealed the absence of drug polymer interactions. Swelling index of microspheres was enhanced with the polymer concentration. The microspheres prepared with alginate and okra gum (formulation) have exhibited higher drug release 98.68% as compared to other formulations. In-vitro release profiles revealed that high concentration of hydrophilic natural gum i.e., okra gum and alginate has resulted retard in drug release. The mechanism of drug release from alginate and okra gum was zero order non fickian kinetics for a period of 12hrs. In conclusion, alginate-okra gum mucoadhesive microspheres could be promising vehicle for oral sustained release of Norfloxacin.

Keywords: Microspheres, Norfloxacin, alginate, okra gum, ionotropic gelation method, swelling index, in-vitro release.