Polyelectrolyte Complexes of Carbopol and Chitosan, as Metoprolol Tartrate Carriers

Author(s): Nisha Rachel Mathews, Satish C S*, Shivaleela Hiremath and Prakash H

Abstract: The objective of the present research work was to develop an extended release matrix tablet of Metoprolol tartrate, an antihypertensive drug by using Carbopol/Chitosan interpolymer complex. Since Metoprolol tartrate has biological half-life nearly about to 4 hours, so attempt has been made to optimize an extended release. Here Carbopol/Chitosan interpolymer complex was used as the rate controlling polymer. The interpolymer complex (IPC) was formed using a precipitation method in an acidic solution. The chitosan and Carbopol IPC was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and turbidity measurements. FT-IR demonstrated that the IPC formed a complex through an electrostatic interaction between the protonated amine (NH3+) group of chitosan and the carboxylate (COO−) group of Carbopol. DSC indicated the IPC to have different thermal characteristics from chitosan or Carbopol. The turbidity measurement revealed the optimum complexation ratio of IPC between chitosan:Carbopol to be 1:4. The tablets were prepared by direct compression method. Formulation MT6 showed NMT 25% release in 1 h, 20-40% release in 4 h, 40-60% release in 8 h and NLT 80 % release in 20 h. The dissolution data were fit to the above equation by drawing a log-log plot of the fraction released versus time. The ‘n’ value were between 0.647 to 0.975, which indicated that the release followed non-Fickian diffusion mechanism or anomalous transport and suggesting that both diffusion of the drug in the hydrated matrix and chains relaxation process affect the drug release process.

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