Nanochitosan grafting sodium alginate improve loading and release of the antibiotic 'streptomycin', for drug release applications

Abstract

Streptomycin is an antibiotic contains phenol and an amino group. It is a water-soluble and widely used in agriculture and livestock husbandry. At a high dose, streptomycin could be used in the early treatment of tuberculosis. This work aimed to use a copolymer of nanochitosan grafting Na-alginate as a carrier of streptomycin and study the kinetics of release. Chitosan and Na-alginate are natural polysaccharides, which are biocompatible and applicable in conventional pharmaceutics for drug delivery carrier. Na-alginate (1% w/v) was mixed with nanochitosan (0.13 gm.) and streptomycin (0.1 gm.) was loaded in a total concentration up to 0.1% w/v. The loaded co polymer was characterized using FT-IR spectroscopy, UV-visible, SEM/EDS analyses. Results indicated that streptomycin has successfully loaded onto Na-alginate-nanochitosan. The release kinetics of streptomycin loaded at co-polymer nanochitosan-Na-alginate were compared with that of streptomycin loaded at nanochitosan alone. Buffer solutions with different pHs (pH 9.4, 7.4 and 1.2) at l max 275 nm and 37 C were applied. Results showed that the basic medium (pH 9.4) has improved the release property of streptomycin from Na-alginate-nanochitosan more than that from nanochitosan. Thus, the co-polymer nanochitosan grafting Na-alginate is a promising candidate for drug release applications.