Development of Alginate Chitosan Hydrogel beads for Oral delivery of Rifaximin

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to develop and characterize Rifaximin (RFX) embedded alginate-chitosan hydrogel beads as a controlled release delivery system.The beads of RFX were prepared by gelation method using chitosan and sodium alginate as polymers and calcium chloride as cross-linking agent. The prepared beads were studied for percent loading efficiency, average particle size, shape and surface morphology, and invitro cumulative percentage drug release.The percentage yield of alginate chitosan hydrogel beads was found to be in the range of 95.4 - 98.6% with excellent flow property. The drug enriched beads also exhibited entrapment efficiency of 88.1 - 90.4%, 90 -91.48% drug content with a cumulative drug release of 60.24%. The drug was determined to be intact and compatible with the polymers employed in the formulations, and the surface morphology of the produced beads was found to be good. The results confirm that combination of sodium alginate and chitosan are promising carrier for formulating oralmicroparticulate hydrogel beads of Rifaximin.