Fabrication and Characterization of Taste Masked Porous Tablets of Losartan Potassium by Sublimation Technique

Oral ingestion has long been the most convenient and commonly employed route of drug delivery due to its ease of administration, high patient compliance, least sterility constraints and flexibility in the design of the dosage form. Fast dissolving tablets has fast on set of action generally, in the present study sublimation technique was adopted as pores were formed in the tablets which reduces disintegration time. Losartan potassium has bitter taste and the taste was masked using sweetening agents. Losartan potassium plays a major role in treating hypertension. It acts as an angiotensin antagonist. It’s the drug with lower sideffects so used widely because of its high solubility, low dose and therapeutic use in diseases, it was considered as an ideal drug candidate for the design of porous tablets. A wide range of polymers was selected for formulating the tablets along with Sublimating agents to prepare the powder blend in 1:1 and 1:2 ratio with the active pharmaceutical agent, along with super disintegrants and sweetners. The tablets were prepared by direct compression and were subjected to sublimation. The Porous tablet formulations were designed by using sublimating agents camphor, menthol, thymol, ammonium bicarbonate, only super disintegrant without sublimation agents. Other excipents a like Avicel, Talc, Magnesium stearate, Crosspovidone, Mannitol, Aspartame were added and flavouring agent added masks the bitter taste of the drug For each designed formulation of porous tablets the powder blend of drug and excipients was prepared and evaluated for different micromeritic properties like Angle of Repose, Bulk Density, Tapped Bulk Density, Hausner’s Ratio and Carr’s Compressibility Index in order to know the flow characteristics and all the results revealed that powder blend showed a good flow properties and thus also suitable for direct compression. The porous tablets were prepared by sublimation technique and the prepared porous tablets were evaluated for different evaluator parameters like Thickness, Weight variation, Hardness, Friability, Assay, Content Uniformity, In-Vitro Disintegration Time and Simulated Wetting Time. All the results obtained from the tests are correlated with the limits and were found to be within the range. From the proposed study, the Porous tablet formulation was found to have least Disintegration Time and Simulated Wetting Time. The total drug release from formulation in pH 6.8 phosphate buffer (dissolution medium) was found to be within 15 minutes. While comparing with porous tablets formulations with non-porous formulation, Porous tablets prepared by sublimation technique showed faster release. Stability Study at 40°C ± 2°C at 75% RH ± 5% RH for 3 months showed no significant changes. From the above parameters Formulation was concluded as the best formulation among all the prepared Porous tablet formulations and the bitter taste was masked by using sweetening agents