ABSTRACT:
The present study deals with formulation of the alginate microparticles of rifampicin, an anti-tubercular agent. The microparticles were developed as sustained delivery carriers for rifampicin in order to improve patient compliance in tuberculosis treatment in terms of reducing the dosing frequency. In the present study, microparticles were prepared by cation-induced gelification of alginate technique. The natural polymer alginate was used to develop drug delivery system for entrapping and delivering the drug orally. This alginate as it has ability to form a gel in the presence of divalent cations such as calcium. This gel shrinks at acidic pH and erodes at alkaline pH. Therefore, it can be used effectively to deliver drug to the intestine. Alginate microparticles containing rifampicin were evaluated for encapsulation efficiency and it was found to be 68 percent. The resulting microparticles were characterized for their surface morphology and particle size. Microparticles were found to be small, free flowing, descrete and irregular shaped. The mean particle size was 0.74 µm with standard deviation of 0.05 µm. The surface morphology of the particle was found to be non-spherical and rigid surfaced. The drug loaded alginate microparticles were evaluated for in-vitro drug released profiles. These drug loaded micro particles exhibited sustained released for 72 hrs in physiological media (pH 7.4 Phosphate buffer solutions without enzymes). The in-vitro release profile of drug loaded microparticles was 84 percent after 72 hrs, where as pure drug sample exhibited 87 percent of release within 3 hrs.