Formulation and evaluation of low cost sustained release floating alginate beads

Abstract

Floating beads are the micro-beads/ spheres prepared by ionic gelation technique. They can be either of sustained release or immediate release type. Sustained release type of floating drug delivery systems generally employ a high viscosity polymer like the hydroxyl propyl methyl cellulose (HPMC) or ethyl cellulose as the matrixing agent. These polymers are generally very expensive, and their use in the formulation leads to increased cost of the for- mulation, which is the main reason that limits the wide-spread usage of this dosage form. In this study, we have tried to produce low cost floating alginate beads by substituting high-cost polymers like HPMC with low cost po- lymer like carboxy methyl cellulose (CMC). Comparative studies were carried out to determine the efficacy of for- mulations containing CMC with that of formulations containing HPMC as the matrixing agent. We have also stu- died the effect of physicochemical properties of the drugs on the drug release pattern of the dosage form i.e. floating alginate beads.