FORMULATION AND EVALUATION OF FLUCONAZOLE PATCHES FOR BUCCAL DRUG DELIVERY ROUTE

Fluconazole is a first-generation triazole antifungal medication that generally used to treat serious, invasive fungal infections. These are generally seen in patients who are immune compromised, and include invasive candidiasis, invasive aspergillosis, and certain emerging fungal infections. In the present study buccal drug delivery of Fluconazole was developed to overcome the first pass metabolism and to reduce the frequency of dosing compared to oral route. Matrix type of buccal patches were developed by using polymers HPMCK4M and HPMCK100M.Buccal patches were prepared by employing solvent casting method. Propylene glycol and Tween80 were selected as permeation enhancer and plasticizer. Drug excipient compatibility studies were carried out by using FTIR, and it was observed that there were no interactions. The formulations were prepared with the varying concentrations of polymers ranging from F1-F6, and all the formulations were evaluated for various parameters like Physical appearance, Flatness, Weight variation, Thickness, Folding endurance, Drug content, Moisture uptake, Moisture content and Swelling study and all the results were found to be within the pharmacopeial limits. Invitro drug release studies are done by using dialysis membrane. Among all the 6 formulations F6 formulation which contain HPMC K100M 500mg had shown 94.7% cumulative drug release within 12 hours. For F6 formulation release kinetics were plotted and the Regression coefficient value was found to be high for Korsmeyer-peppas release model i.e., 0.989. Key words: Fluconazole, HPMCK4M, HPMCK100M, Buccal Patches and Buccal Drug Delivery.