European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

DESIGN OF FAST DISINTEGRATING TABLETS OF TRAMADOL HCL BY USING SUBLIMATION METHOD

Pabbiniddi Veera Lakshmi* and Chepuri Prasanthi

ABSTRACT

An ODT is a solid dosage form that disintegrates and dissolves in the mouth (either on or beneath the tongue or in the buccal cavity) without water within 60 seconds or less. ODTs also are called orally disintegrating, orodisperse, mouth-dissolving, quick-dissolve, fast-melt, and rapid-disintegrating tablets and freeze-dried wafers. In the present work, fast disintegrating tablets of tramadol HCl were designed with a view to enhance patient compliance by sublimation method. Tablets containing tramadol Hcl, menthol, Carscarmellose, Microcrystalline cellulose, Magnesium Stearate, Talc and mannitol were prepared by direct compression technique. Menthol was sublimed from the tablets by exposing to vacuum. The tablets were first prepared and later exposed to vacuum. A total 6 formulations were developed by varying the amount of carscarmellose and menthol. The tablets were evaluated for precompression and post compression parameters such as percentage friability and disintegration time etc. The result analysis indicated that for obtaining fast dissolving tablets; optimum amount of menthol and higher percentage of carscarmellose should be used. Sublimation of menthol from tablets resulted in rapid disintegration as compared with the tablets prepared from granules that were exposed to vacuum. The optimized tablet formulation containing 20% menthol and 20% carscarmellose shows drug release of 98.95% within 15min. In vitro drug dissolution data of formulations were subjected to goodness of fit test by linear regression analysis which indicates the drug dissolution follows first order kinetics. From the results, it was concluded that fast dissolving tablets with improved dissolution could be prepared by sublimation of tablets containing suitable subliming agent.

Keywords: Oral disintegrating tablets, tramadol HCl, subliming agent, menthol.