European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

NATURAL POLYMER BASED FORMULATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF MATRIX CONTROLLED RELEASE TABLET OF LOSARTAN POTASSIUM EMPLOYING SINTERING TECHNIQUE

Dr. A. S. Kulkarni, S. V. Jadhav* and Dr. N. H. Aloorkar

ABSTRACT

Exploration of Sintering concept in pharmaceutical science is relatively recent. In the present investigation, controlled release (CR) matrix tablets of Losartan potassium were prepared by direct compression method using natural polymer pullulan and then sintered by employing thermal sintering technique. Various batches of matrix tablets of Losartan potassium were prepared with varying concentrations of polymer and then sintered thermally at different time periods and temperatures and were evaluated for physicochemical parameters and in-vitro dissolution studies. The sintering time and temperature markedly affects the characteristics of the tablets. From In-vitro drug release profile, sintered formulations exhibited sustained drug release profiles with maximum sustaining effect when compared with unsintered formulation in about 10 hrs. By using sintering technique, friability of tablets was found to decrease and hardness was found to increase with increasing sintering time.

Keywords: Losartan potassium, Sintering technique, pullulan, controlled release.