Abstract

ORGANO MONTMORILLONITE AS DRUG DELIVERY VEHICLE FOR THE EXTENDED RELEASE OF AN ANTIBIOTIC DRUG

Arun Kant and Monika Datta*

Abstract

The aim of the present work was to develop organo Montmorillonite (OMt) as a drug delivery vehicle for the extended release of an antibiotic drug, Metronidazole (MTZ). OMt was synthesised by the modification of the reported procedure.[01] Interaction of MTZ with OMt was studied as a function of pH of the aqueous solution of the drug, contact time of batch extraction and initial concentration of MTZ in the solution. A maximum loading of MTZ was found to be about 1150 μg/50mg of OMt. The adsorption isotherm was well fitted by the Langmuir model and was observed to follow pseudo-second-order kinetics. The synthesized OMt-MTZ complex has been characterized using various appropriate analytical techniques. The in-vitro release behaviour of the drug from pure MTZ, the commercially available tablets (Metrogyl and Flagyl) and the synthesized OMt-MTZ complex was investigated in the simulated gastric and intestinal fluids. In the present case possible bioavailability for pure MTZ, the commercially available tablets and the OMt-MTZ complex has been calculated from the in- vitro drug release data and it has been observed that, compared to the pure MTZ and the commercially available tablets performance of the synthesised OMt-MTZ complex has not only been found superior in terms of probable % bioavailability but also in terms of availability of the drug in the system for a longer period of time.

Keywords: Montmorillonite, PF68, Adsorption, Isotherm, Kinetics and extended release.