Design, optimization and evaluation of ibuprofen fast dissolving tablets employing starch succinate: A new superdisintegrant

The current scenario emphasize on oral administration. The main disadvantage in oral administration was difficulty in swallowing for pediatric and geriatric patients. To solve this problem in oral drug delivery system, the formulation of fast dissolving systems found to be the best alternatives.  The present investigation involves in the evaluation of starch succinate as a superdintegrant in the formulation of fast dissolving tablets of poorly soluble drugs employing 23factorial design. Starch succinate was synthesized by esterification process. The synthesized starch succinate was subjected to physical and micromeritic evaluation. All fast dissolving tablets were evaluated for drug content, hardness, friability, disintegration time and other dissolution characteristics like percent dissolved in 5 min (PD5), dissolution efficiency in 5 min (DE5%) and first order rate constant(K1). The starch succinate prepared was found to be fine, free flowing crystalline powder. Starch succinate exhibited good swelling in water. Fourier transform infrared spectra (FTIR) and Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) study indicated the absence of interaction between ibuprofen and starch succinate. All the fast dissolving tablets formulated employing starch succinate were of good quality with regard to drug content (200±2%), hardness (3.6–4.0 kg/sq. cm), and friability (0.12-0.15%). The optimised formulation F8 has the least disintegration time i.e., 15±0. 02s. The in–vitro wetting time was less (i.e., 15s) in optimized formulation F8. The water absorption ratio of the formulated tablets was found to be in the range of 31.4±0.01 to 68.0±0.04%. The cumulative drug dissolved in the optimized formulation F8 was found to be 99.81± 0.22% in 5 min. Starch succinate was found to be a superdisintegrant which enhanced the dissolution efficiency with the ibuprofen and hence it could be used in the formulation of fast dissolving tablets to bring immediate release of the contained drug within 5 minutes. Keywords: Fast dissolving, Superdisintegrant, Starch succinate, Dissolution efficiency