Formulation and characterization of medicated chewing gum containing zingiberine for treatment of throat infections

Abstract

The objective of this work was to formulate zingiberine as medicated chewing gum for improving its bioavailability. The objective was achieved by isolating zingiberine form ginger oil and formulating chewing gum using zein as the gum base by melting method. The formulation of ZCGs was achieved using melting method. Zein was used as the gum base, glycerine as the plasticizer, sucrose and mannitol as the sweeteners and peppermint oil as the flavoring agent. The amount of drug contained in the formulations was uniform in all the formulations and ranged from 94.4 to 96.2%. Release of drug from ZCGs in simulated saliva (pH 6.8 buffer solution) was studied by analyzing the samples at various time intervals up to 30 min. The drug release from the formulations was found to be in the range of 74.28 to 91.66 % in 30 min. Increasing the concentration of the gum base (zein) in the formulations led to a decrease in the release of the drug. The highest percentage of zingiberene was found to be released form ZCG1 after 30 min. Hence it could be considered the best formulation of all.