Vol. 1, Issue 2 (2012)

Author(s):
Kuldeep Malodia, SK Singh and DN Mishra

Abstract:
Meloxicam is non steroidal anti-inflammatory drug having BCS class II category. Meloxicam inhibits cyclooxygenase (COX-2), the enzyme responsible for converting arachidonic acid into prostaglandin (PG-H_{HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostaglandin_H2"2}) the first step in the synthesis of prostaglandins, which are mediators of inflammation. In the present study, Polymeric nanoparticles were prepared using Emulsion Cross-linking technique to overcome poor aqueous solubility and low oral bioavailability. The W/O emulsion containing drug and chitosan in aqueous phase was cross-linked with aldehyde groups of gluteraldehyde with amine group of chitosan. The physicochemical properties like zeta sizes, zeta potential, polydispersity index of formulated nanoparticles were evaluated. The preparation of MLX nanoparticles was initiated by optimizing the drug: polymer on the basis of size, polydispersity index and encapsulation efficiency. The final optimized formulation was found to be MC8, MLX: Chitosan (10:400) with mean size of 84±1.7 nm and having polydispersity index of 0.086. The shape and surface morphology of the nanoparticles were evaluated by the use of scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The SEM photomicrograph revealed that the carrier system was more spherical in shape and uniformly distributed without any aggregation or adhesion of nanoparticles. The crystalline state evaluation was done by DSC of Meloxicam (plain drug), optimized formulations MC8.