FORMULATION AND OPTIMIZATION OF CARBOPOL AND ETHYL CELLULOSE AS FLOATING-MUCOADHESIVE SYSTEM OF DILTIAZEM HYDROCHLORIDE TABLET BY FACTORIAL DESIGN

Abstract

Hypertension is a degenerative disease that each year has increased the number of patients. Number of patients in Indonesia is estimated at 15 million people. Nearly 50% of patients suffering from hypertension are not aware that tends to be severe hypertension (Syahrini et al., 2012). Diltiazem Hydrochloride (HCl) is an antihypertensive drug used 3-4 times a day with doses of 30-60 mg (UBM Medica, 2012). Diltiazem HCl has a half life of 3-5 hours (Sweetman, 2009) with the main absorption area in the upper stomach (Kapil et al., 2012) that can be formulated into sustained release dosage gastro retentive system. The system created is a combination of floatingmucoadhesive.

The combination of these systems is expected to overcome the shortcomings of the system when used alone. Floating system floats over the surface of gastric contents when the stomach is full but at the time stomach is emptied and the tablet reaches the pylorus the bouyancy of the dosage may be decreased. If the stomach is full, mucodhesive dosage form not properly adheres may be passage the pylorus due to peristaltic movements of the stomach (Gaykar et al., 2013). Polymer is one of the essential ingredients to produce a floating-mucoadhesive system that meets the requirements. The polymer used is a combination of Carbopol and ethyl cellulose. The combination of hydrophilic and hydrophobic polymers proved able to control the rate of drug release with high solubility (Nanjwade et al., 2011).