Response Surface Method Assisted Fabrication and Characterization of Optimized Aceclofenac Loaded Microspheres Inculcated with Multivariate Polymers

Abstract

The optimized microspheres were fabricated as a controlled release system for aceclofenac incorporating polymeric cross-linking with sodium alginate as natural, hydrophilic polymer and Eudragit RS100 synthetic, hydrophobic polymer by ion-gelation technique. The method was optimized by Box Behnken design incorporating concentration of pure drug, natural and synthetic polymer along with the obtained responses that were mean particle size (Y1) and entrapment efficiency of drug (Y2). Microspheres were characterized for percentage yield, micromeritic evaluation, particle size, entrapment efficiency of drug, in vitro study, fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance and high performance liquid chromatography quantification of optimized formulation. It was observed that application of response surface method software for Box Behnken design yielded stable and spherical microspheres with mean particle size 69.37 μm and entrapment efficiency of drug 79.86 % for the most optimized formulation F5. We can conclude that bridging of aceclofenac with natural and synthetic polymers yielded stable, cost effective microspheres bearing enhanced micromeritic properties with controlled release effect.