EVALUATION OF THE SUSPENDING PROPERTIES OF SHEA TREE GUM

Objective: Shea gum is found in large quantities in the northern part of Ghana. Its use in the pharmaceutical industry has been limited by lack of research into the possible uses of the gum as a pharmaceutical excipient. This study seeks to investigate the use of shea gum as a suspending agent using paracetamol as a model drug.Methods: The crude shea gum was collected, purified and used as a suspending agent to formulate paracetamol suspensions using gum concentrations of 1 %w/v, 2 %w/v, 3 % w/v and 4 % w/v. These suspensions with varying gum concentrations were compared with paracetamol suspensions containing same concentrations of acacia gum. The suspensions were all tested for their apparent viscosity, flow time, sedimentation volume over 42 d and ease of re-dispersibility.Results: The apparent viscosities of both suspensions increased when the gum concentrations were increased. The flow times of the freshly prepared shea gum suspensions increased gradually with increasing concentration of gum. A similar trend was observed for suspensions made with acacia gum. For suspensions made with either gum, the volume of sediments was found to be inversely proportional to the concentration of the gum. However, the volume of sediments increased with time. The ease of re-dispersibility was directly proportional to the concentration of gum in suspensions containing either gum.Conclusion: Shea gum was found to have suspending properties comparable to acacia gum. Shea gum can, therefore, be used in formulating oral suspensions of drugs.Keywords: Suspension, Shea gum, Acacia gu