Vol. 6, Issue 5 (2017)

Author(s):
Amer Khorshed Alam, Khadiza Mousumi Talukdar, Dr. Swarnali Islam, Rajia Sultana and Farzana Islam

Abstract:
Vinpocetine is a drug which is reported to have cerebral blood-flow enhancing and neuroprotective effects. The purpose of this study was to prepare and evaluate a biodegradable implantable system of Vinpocetine to reduce its dosing frequency for lowering the chance of adverse effects and to improve patient compliance. Vinpocetine loaded Chitosan- Na Alginate implants were prepared of varying ratios of 60:40 and 70:30 with 50 mg drug load. Implants were placed into a crosslinking solution of Glutaraldehyde with exposure time of 30 minutes. Implants were evaluated for loading efficiency and in-vitro release studies. Implants formulated with 50 mg drug load in 60:40 ratio of Chitosan-Sodium Alginate produced the maximum sustained action. That is why 60:40 was considered as optimum ratio and six different excipients: Glyceryl mono-stearate, Cetyl Alcohol, Stearic Acid. Cetostearyl Alcohol, Methocel K 15 M and Kollidon 30 were used to prepare implants in 60:40 ratios with 30 minutes exposure time. All of the excipients were found to increase the loading efficiency of the implants. The results of in-vitro dissolution study were fitted to Higuchi, Korsmeyer-Peppas, Zero order and first order kinetics models to evaluate the release kinetics data. Implants were found to follow Zero order model implying controlled release. It was observed that drug release from the implants with Cetyl alcohol excipient showed maximum sustained action followed by stearic acid. Scanning Electron Microscope method was used to observe the surface morphology of implants to determine the surface integrity of the polymers before drug release and to observe the surface after drug release to correlate with the in-vitro results.