ABSTRACT
Introduction: Mucoadhesive formulation is one of modified systems of drug delivery used to accomplish therapeutic objectives not offered by conventional delivery.
Objective: The objective of this study was compare the mucoadhesive property of Okra gum with that of hydroxyl methylcellulose and also to evaluate the release kinetic of these formulated tablets
Method: Okra gum was extracted from okra pods by washing, blending, adding of water and stirred to form the mucilage, the mucilage was sieved through a muslin bag, to remove residual pods and produce a fine mucilage. The mucilage was poured and spread thinly onto a glass tray and air tried for 48hrs and the dried gum was scrapped from the glass plate.
The okra gum and HPMC were used in different concentration to formulate the metronidazole tablets using wet granulation method. The tablets were evaluated for their physiochemical properties, mucoadhesive property and release kinectics.
Results: The result showed that all the granules were free flowing Carr’s index was less than 25% ,angle of repose was less than 30˚. Hausner ratio was less than 1.32. these indicated good flow of the granules. For the tablets characteristics; tablets of Okra gum had hardness of the range 9.125-11.475 and tablets of HPMC had hardness of the ranges 7.1-9.61 indicating that okra gum Tablets had harder tablets than HPMC tablets. Friability tests: all the tablets had friability less than 1%. Mucoadhesive Test of 10% Okra gum tablets gave a mucoadhesive strength of 180ml of distilled water required to detach it from the mucous membrane of cow ileum while 10% HPMC required 150ml. For release kinectics; Okra gum tablets simulated the first order model as the plot showed the highest regression coefficient (r2) of 0.777-0.931 and that of HPMC tablets followed the Higuchi release kinetic with the highest regression coefficient of 0.965-0.996. all the batches all had release exponent of >4.5 indicating that they all followed the Non-Fickian diffusion mechanism.
Conclusion: From the result, Okra gum was found to have comparable mucoadhesive property and even greater mucoadhesive property compared to HPMC under the experimental conditions used in this study talkmore of after it is has been modified. Hence okra gum can be used as pharmaceutical excipient in mucoadhesive drug delivery systems and has the potential to replace some synthetic mucoadhesive polymers upon further modifications.
