Investigation Of Colon Specificity Of Novel Polysaccharideokra Mucilage-Film Coated With Enteric Materials

Abstract

• Okra polysaccharide as a microbially triggered material and also as the carrier to colon was previously developed and reported. The release profiles of the reported method revealed that okra mucilage, when used as a matrix tablet, does not protect the drug from being released in the upper parts of the gastro intestinal tract. In the present work the tablets were prepared with okra mucilage and coated with enteric materials to retard the drug release in the upper GI tract. Okra polysaccharide was isolated from Abelmoschus esculentus and used for tablet formulation with ibuprofen as model drug. The matrix tablets of okra polysaccharide were prepared by wet granulation method using ibuprofen as a model drug. These prepared matrix tablets were coated with enteric materials by pan coating technique. The in vitro release profile was performed with and without rat cecal content, revealed that the enteric coated formulations completely protected the drug from being released in the upper parts of the gastro intestinal tract. Among the enteric coated tablets, the 3% double layer coated tablets exhibited zero in vitro release profiles at 2^nd and 5^th hours. Hence, this tablet was subjected for further pharmacokinetic estimations and was compared with control tablet. At 5.5 h the ibuprofen appeared first in the blood; this showed the tablet was intact throughout the upper GI. The T_max and AUC estimates showed that the drug was released from the tablet to colon by bacterial degradation of mucilage.