Formulation Development & Evaluation of Mouth Dissolving Film of Zolmitriptan as an Antimigraine Medication

Rajesh Asija*, Manmohan Sharma, Avinash Gupta, Sangeeta Asija 
Department of Pharmaceutics, Maharishi Arvind Institute of Pharmacy, Jaipur-302020, Rajasthan, India
Received: 21 April 2014, Accepted: 21 June 2014, Published Online: 10 August 2014

Abstract
Zolmitriptan is a selective serotonin receptor agonist of the 5HT_1B and 5HT_1D subtypes, both centrally and peripherally. It has been used clinically for the acute treatment of migraine attacks with or without aura and cluster headaches. Zolmitriptan has oral bioavailability of 40-48% due to hepatic first pass metabolism and has short half life of 3 h. To overcome the above draw back the present study was carried out to formulate and evaluate mouth dissolving film of Zolmitriptan. The films were prepared from water soluble polymers such as Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC K4M), and polyvinylalcohal (PVA) by solvent casting method. Propylene glycol as plasticizer, Sodium saccharin as sweeteners and other excipient such as citric acid, tween 80 were also included. The IR spectral studies showed no interaction between drug and polymer or with other additives. Satisfactory results were obtained when subjected to physicochemical tests such as uniformity of weight, thickness, surface pH, folding endurance and uniformity of drug content. Films were also subjected to in vitro drug release studies by using USP dissolution apparatus. The film formulation F5 containing HPMC K4M was found to be suitable in form of MDF based on in vitro evaluation studies.
Keywords: Mouth dissolving film, Antimigraine drug, Solvent casting method, HPMC, PVA.