European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

FORMULATION AND EVALUATION OF PSYLLIUM HUSK-CONTAINING GRANULES AS A CARRIER TO SUSTAIN THE RELEASE OF WATER-SOLUBLE DRUGS I: CHARACTERIZATION AND RELEASE STUDIES

Nesreen S. Ghwel? and Mahmud S. Treki*

ABSTRACT

This work describes many attempts to sustain the release of freely water-soluble drugs, namely Metformin HCl and sodium salicylate, which are used as model drugs. The large dose of Metformin HCl represents an additional obstacle to the formulation of an acceptable dosage form of this drug. The use of psyllium husk, as the main component of sustained release preparations, was investigated and reported in the literature with success (Yasir et al., 2010). Granules of Metformin HCl containing different hydrocolloids such as psyllium Husk and sodium carboxy-methyl cellulose (Na CMC),“ System I”, and granules of sodium salicylate containing these hydrocolloids in addition to stearic acid, “System II’ were prepared. FTIR spectra revealed that these drugs were not affected by the formulation process. Physicochemical characterization of the formed granules has shown that the prepared granules were generally free flowing with good compressibility. In Vitro release studies revealed a significant decrease in the percentage of drug released, over 7 hours, as the percentage of Na CMC was increased in the formulations studied. A synergetic effect of combined Psyllium and Na CMC on sustaining the drug release was noticed. Psyllium was found to be unable to slow down the drug release alone, probably due to the long swelling time of this hydrocolloid.

Keywords: Psyllium Husk, Metformin HCl, Sodium carboxy-methyl cellulose, Sodium salicylate, Sustained release.