TASTE MASKING AND FORMULATION DEVELOPMENT & EVALUATION OF MOUTH DISSOLVING TABLETS OF LEVOCETRIZINE DIHYDROCHLORIDE

Levocetrizine dihydrochloride is the active R (-) enantiomer of cetrizine. It is an orally active and selective H1 receptor antagonist used medically as an Antiallergic. Allergic rhinitis is a symptomatic disorder of the nose induced by inflammation mediated by immunoglobulin E (IgE) in the membrane lining the nose after allergen exposure. Thus formulating Levocetirizine dihydrochloride into a mouth dissolving tablets would provide fast relief. Levocetirizine dihydrochloride is bitter in taste so the Kyron T-134 (ion exchange resin) was used to mask the taste and formulated a mouth dissolving tablets using drug resin complex. Results show that effective taste masking is achieved for Levocetrizine dihydrocloride by preparing drug-resin complex using Kyron T-134. The tablets have evaluated for the drug content, weight variation, and water absorption ratio, wetting time, in vitro disintegration, hardness, friability, thickness uniformity and in-vitro dissolution. The tablets disintegrated in- vitro within 21 to 33 seconds. . The % drug content of tablets in all formulations was found to be between 90-110% which complied with limits established in Indian Pharmacopoeia. In vitro drug release profile of tablets is shown 99% drug release in 10 minutes. The results show that Levocetirizine dihydrochloride is successfully formulated into a mouth dissolving tablet. Key words: Levocetirizine dihydrochloride, Allergic rhinitis, Super disintegrants, Ion exchange resin, Mouth dissolving tablets