Liquisolid Compact Technique for Improvement of the Dissolution Rate of Flurbiprofen: Formulation and Evaluation

Vemula Sk

doi:10.16966/2470-1009.102

Abstract

Development of liquisolid compacts is one of the new pharmaceutical formulation technologies to improve the dissolution rate of poorly soluble drugs. The intent of present investigation was to enhance the dissolution rate of poorly soluble drug flurbiprofen by delivering the drug as a liquisolid compact. Liquisolid compacts were developed using polyethylene glycol 400 (PEG 400) as solvent, Avicel PH102 or starch or HPMC or PEG 4000 or PEG 6000 as the carrier powder and Aerosil 200 as the coating material. The crystallinity of the newly formulated drug and the interaction between excipients was examined by differential scanning calorimetry. The dissolution studies for the liquisolid formulation and the marketed product were carried out at to determine the improvement in dissolution rate and finally the best formulation was subjected to stability studies to assess the drug stability in the formulation. The results of interaction studies showed no change in the crystallinity of the drug and no interaction between excipients. The percentage drug release of flurbiprofen at 10 min (Q 10 ) and dissolution efficiency were increased from 22.81 ± 1.09% and 16.68 for conventional tablet to 91.52 ± 0.78% and 60.17 for the liquisolid tablet F5. The increase in the dissolution rate was also found to be significant compared to the conventional tablet. From the stability studies, the similarity index was found as 84.75 and it is above 50 indicated the stability of drug in the formulation. In conclusion, the liquisolid technique was considered as a promising approach to improve the dissolution of poorly soluble drugs like flurbiprofen.

Highlights

Pharmaceutical industries deal with several problems and challenges owing to global competition and increasing demand for better products
In the present study flurbiprofen liquisolid tablets were prepared by using polyethylene glycol 400 (PEG 400) as a non-volatile liquid vehicle Avicel PH102 or starch or HPMC or PEG 4000 or PEG 6000 as the carrier powder and Aerosil 200 as the coating material in different ratios and they were characterized for different physical parameters and drug release studies to find the optimized formulation that shows fast dissolution rate (Table 1)
The Liquisolid technique was found to be a promising approach for improving the dissolution rate of poorly soluble drug like flurbiprofen

Summary

Introduction

Pharmaceutical industries deal with several problems and challenges owing to global competition and increasing demand for better products. Different types of techniques are reported in the literature to improve the dissolution of poorly soluble drugs These include solid dispersions [4], crystal engineering [5], ball milling [6], complexation [7], selfemulsifying drug delivery systems [8] and use of mesoporous silica carriers [9]. Liquisolid systems are described as dry, non-adherent, free-flowing and compressible powder mixtures acquired by conversion of liquid drugs, drug suspensions or drug solution in nonvolatile solvents with chosen carriers and coating materials. In briefly, this technique convert the drug is dissolved in a nonvolatile liquid to dry, free flowing and compressible solid with the aid of carrier and coat materials. The liquisolid technique has shown promising results with the drugs like carbamazepine [11], atorvastatin calcium [12], nimesulide [13] and fenofibrate [14]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion