Formulation and evaluation of Gastro retentive floating tablets of Cefixime

About author
Goutham Dev, Dr. Hindustan Abdul Ahad*, Sanjay Kumar M, Rajesh Pawan A
PG department of Industrial Pharmacy, Balaji College of Pharmacy, Anantapur, AP, India
E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract
In the present research work, floating gastro retentive tablets of Cefixime were prepared to prolong the release of Cefixime. Floating tablets of Cefixime were prepared by employing lipid excipient Glycerylbenhenate along with HPMC K 15M, Xanthan gum. The floating approach was achieved by the use of Sodium bicarbonate and citric acid system. The floating tablets were evaluated for physico-chemical characteristics, pre compression and post- compression parameters. FTIR studies of the pure drug, its physical mixture with polymer blend showed that no polymorphic changes occurred during manufacturing of tablets. The prepared tablets exhibited satisfactory physico-chemical characteristics and in vitro buoyancy. In vitro drug release data were fitted into zero order, first order, Higuchi’s model, Korsmeyer-Peppas and Hixon Crowell’s kinetic models. Increase in the HPMC K15M level was found to increase the floating time of the tablets. Optimized tablet formulation exhibited no significant change in physical appearance, drug content, total buoyancy time, or in vitro dissolution pattern after storage at 40°C/75% relative humidity for 3 months.
Key words
Cefixime, floating tablets, Glycerylbenhenate, HPMC, Xanthan gum
Introduction
Cefixime is a third generation cephalosporin antibiotic having bactericidal activity and used in the treatment of uncomplicated UTI, otitis media, pharyngitis, acute bronchitis and acute exacerbation of chronic bronchitis, uncomplicated gonorrhea. Cefixime having pKa value of 2.5 is a weak acid which will remain unionized at acidic pH thus increases absorption in the stomach region. It is primarily absorbed from the stomach and upper part of intestine. In view of this absorption characteristic, the hypothesis of current investigation is that if the gastric residence time of Cefixime containing formulation is prolonged and allowed to float in the stomach for a long period, the oral bioavailability might be increased. Hence an attempt has been made for developing floating tablets of Cefixime using HPMC K15M, Glycerylbenhenate and Xanthan gum. Gastro retentive systems can remain in the gastric region for several hours and hence significantly prolong the gastric residence time of drugs. Prolonged gastric retention improves bioavailability, reduces drug waste and improves solubility for drugs that are less soluble in a high pH environment of small intestine. The floating drug delivery system have a density less than gastric fluid and hence remain buoyant in the stomach without effecting gastric emptying rate for a prolonged period of time. These dosage forms increases gastric residence time and reduces fluctuations in plasma drug concentration.