Modification of drug release profile of metronidazole tablet using co-precipitate of irvingia and egg albumin – A proven good technology

Abstract

This work was aimed at studying the effect co-precipitation of irvingia gum with egg albumin had on the drug release profile of metronidazole tablets. Irvingia gum was extracted from the seed of irvingia gabonensis by maceration method. Some of the irvingia gums were co-precipitated with egg albumin. The irvingia gum (IG) and its co-precipitate with egg albumin (EA) were respectively used as 2% binders to formulate metronidazole tablets. Micromeritics characterization of the granules were performed, afterwhich, they were compressed into tablets. Quality control test such as hardness, friability, disintegration time and dissolution tests were performed on the tablets. The results obtained, showed that flow rate for batch IG was 9.380 g/s and for EA was 3.250 g/s. Angle of repose was 39.860 and 29.680 for batches IG and EA respectively. Compressibility index was 35.330 and 25.470, while Hausner’s ratio was 1.550 and 1.342 for IG and EA respectively. Friability was 2.750% and 1.570% and disintegration time was 0.80±0.01 mins and 3.17 ±0.01 min for IG and EA respectively. 50.5% and 19.0% of metronidazole were released after 60 mins from IG and EA respectively. This indicated a marked modification (reduction) in the drug release profile for batch EA.