Vol. 7, Issue 5 (2018)

Author(s):
AJ Chacko and Dr. Jyoti Harindran

Abstract:
The study was to develop and evaluate a compression coated tablet of salbutamol sulphate for chronotherapeutic delivery for nocturnal asthma. Incidence of asthma is greatest in the early hours and is referred as “morning dip”. A formulation which could deliver the drug in the right concentration just prior to the attack could effectively control the disease. Sustaining drug release thereafter would further enable the dosage as once a day unit. The dosage consisted of a bilayered tablets prepared by direct compression. The core tablet contained 4mg salbutamol for sustained release and 2 mg for the burst release. The core was compression coated with a swellable polymer HPMC and further dip coated with Eudragit RS 100 and Eudragit RL 100 in the ratio 1:1, a pH independent semipermeable membrane to achieve a time lag of 5hrs for the initial burst release. The lag time was optimized Box-Behnken design. The developed system successfully released the initial dose after 5 hours and there after sustained for more than 12 hours. The drug release predominantly followed zero order kinetics. The Higuchi R2 values suggested that the drug release follows diffusion pattern. This dosage form would effectively control the nocturnal asthma.