Formulation and evaluation of mouth dissolving tablets of felodipine

Abstract

Recent advances in Novel Drug Delivery Systems (NDDS) aim to enhance safety and efficacy of drug molecule by formulating a convenient dosage form for administration and to achieve better patient compliance. One such approach is fast disintegrating/ dispersing tablet formulation. In the present work, fast disintegrating tablets of Felodipine were designed with a view to enhance patient compliance by direct compression method. In the direct compression method, crospovidone (2-10% w/w) was used as super-disintegrant along with microcrystalline cellulose (5-20%w/w) as disintegrant and directly compressible mannitol to enhance mouth feel. Estimation of Felodipine in the prepared tablet formulations was carried out by extracting the drug with methanol and measuring the absorbance at 360nm. The prepared formulations were further evaluated for hardness, friability, drug content uniformity, wetting time, water absorption ratio and in vitro dispersion time. Based on in vitro dispersion time (approximately 8-14 s), one promising formulation was tested for in vitro drug release pattern (in pH 6.8 phosphate buffer) and drug excipient interaction (IR spectroscopy). Among all the formulations, promising formulation (DCF3) the formulation prepared by direct compression method (containing 2% w/w crospovidone and 15% w/w microcrystalline cellulose) emerged as the overall best formulation.