Formulation and Evaluation of Paracetamol Loaded Mucoadhesive Microspheres

The present work is to formulate the mucoadhesive microspheres loaded Paracetamol using two different natural gums with an aim to increase the GI retention time, enhance bioavailability over prolonged period of time in the stomach and upper GIT and decreased GI side effect. Methods: Paracetamol mucoadhesive microspheres were formulated using sodium alginate, different concentration of Xanthan gum and Guar gum by ionic gelation technique. Six formulations were prepared and evaluated for relevant parameters. Results: Percentage yield is found between 52.34 +/- 0.58% to 84.21 +/- 0.21% in all formulations. The surface morphology of microspheres was characterized by SEM; it was discrete, spherical in shape and showed free flowing properties. The mean particle size of microspheres significantly increases and it was the range between 37.05 +/- 0.05 micrometer to 45.29 +/- 0.06 micrometer. Among all the formulations, XG-III showed a high entrapment efficiency is 94.80 +/- 0.54% and highest percentage sorption in distilled water is observed. The in-vitro drug release studies revealed that XG-III is controlled and found to be 77.04 +/- 0.22% at the end of the dissolution studies. The mechanism of drug release was evaluated using the linear regression coefficient. Stability studies of selected mucoadhesive microspheres showed good results. It could be also concluding that the all the formulations were shown satisfactory results and suitable for potential therapeutic uses.