Sustained Release of Diclofenac from Doubly Cross-linked Hydrogels Consisting of Sodium Alginate/Guar Gum/Zinc Oxide

Abstract

Diclofenac sodium is a widely used drug for muscular pain. However, it is having considerable adverse effects due to its sensitivity to the gastrointestinal tract. To overcome this problem, a popular method is the usage of alginate-based hydrogel as a matrix. Still, the method is far from satisfactory results due to the high swelling of the matrix, which is due to the inherent swelling property of alginate gel and causes burst release of the drug. The current study is aimed at a solution for all these problems, targeting sustained release of the active drug with controlled swelling of the hydrogel matrix. Anovel drug release system based on sodium alginate (SA)/guar gum and zinc oxide nanoparticles, which are doubly cross-linked with calcium chloride and citric acid, was developed. ZnO nanoparticles were made through the direct precipitation method. The obtained gels were characterized by Fourier transform infrared, differential scanning calorimetry, scanning electron microscopy, etc. Cross-linked alginate/guar gum hydrogels act as a stabilizing agent and a matrix for sustained release. Incorporation of nanoparticles is found to be improving the sustained release with a considerable decrease in the degree of swelling. These findings suggest SA/guar gum/zinc oxide hydrogel beads prepared by double cross-linking can be a novel system for loading drugs which are sensitive to the gastro-intestinal tract.. KEYWORDS :Hydrogels, Sustainable release, Controlled swelling, Cross-linking agents, Nnanoparticles