European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

MICROBEADS – A REVIEW

Dhinesh Kumar L.*, Gomathi M., Jothimanivannan C., Vignesh M., Thinakaran P., Gnanaprakash M.

ABSTRACT

The goal of any drug delivery system is to provide a therapeutic amount of drug to the proper site in the body and also to achieve and maintain the desired drug concentration. This could be achieved through multiparticulate dosage form like beads which are divided into many individual units, so, called subunits, each exhibiting some desired characteristics. Micro particulate drug delivery systems have various well-known advantages over single unit dosage form. Preparation of microbeads drug delivery system is one of the alternatives which involve neither use of harsh chemical nor elevated temperature. The conventional techniques involve the use of ionotropic gelation method, emulsion gelation method, polyelectrolyte complexation method, etc. The majority of work has been done on the preparation of microbeads by ionotropic gelation method rather than other methods owing to its ease of preparation. The ionotropic gelation method is based on the ability of polyelectrolytes counter ions to crosslink to form a hydrogel sustained release formulation.

Keywords: Microparticulate drug delivery, Microbeads, Preparative methods, Polymers used, Applications.