Designing and characterization of Yahom buccal mucoadhesive tablets for oral ulcer treatment

Abstract

Oral ulcer is a common oral mucosal disease that affects about 5–20% of general population, particularly the elderly, and is characterized by recurrent, painful ulcerations and burning sensation. Various possible causes include local, systemic, immunologic, genetic, allergic and microorganisms. Yahom is a Thai traditional medicine that has long been used to treat nausea, vomiting, dizziness and weakness in elderly. Yahom is produced from a variety components of dried medicinal plant parts that are mostly ground into powder dosage form. Ingredients are composed of following crude drugs are common incorporated in Yahom preparations such as clove, terminalia gall, costus root and ceylon ironwood flower which practically and clearly exhibit the potent antioxidant and antimicrobial activities. Therefore, it is interesting to apply Yahom as active component for oral ulcer treatment using appropriate approach such as mucoadhesive tablet. The objective of this study is to develop buccal mucoadhesive tablet consisting of hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) and polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) as mucoadhesive polymers in formulations. The impact of various ratios of Yahom: polymer and polymer mixtures were investigated on physicochemical properties of mucoadhesive tablets were investigated including physical properties, disintegration time, water sorption/erosion behaviors and ex-vivo mucoadhesion. In addition, the antimicrobial activities of formulations against two standard microbes were also evaluated using agar cup diffusion methods. Yahom mucoadhesive tablets were successfully fabricated using direct compression tableting technique with good appearance and acceptable physical properties. Different amounts of Yahom and polymer ratios apparently influenced on water sorption, erosion behaviors and hardness of mucoadhesive tablets, resulting in alteration of disintegration time and muco-adhesion properties. In addition, these prepared tablets exhibited the efficient antimicrobial activities against Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 6538 and C. albicans ATCC 10231. Therefore, the buccal mucoadhesive tablets containing Yahom are the potential herbal delivery system for oral ulcer treatment.