Synthesis and Characterization of Thiolated Gum Kondagogu and Evaluation as Mucoadhesive Polymer

Present work focused on thiolation for enhancing the mucoadhesive potential of Gum kondagogu (GK). Thiolation of GK was done by esterification process with 80 % thioglycolic acid in presence of 7N HCl. Thiolated Gum kondagogu (ThioGK) was determined to possess 1.59 ±0.04 mmol of thiol groups/g of the polymer by Ellman's method. ThioGK was characterized by FTIR, NMR, DSC, XRD, and FE-SEM. The tablets were prepared by direct compression using 75 mg of ThioGK and GK. Tablets containing ThioGK (F1) and GK (F2) were subjected to evaluation of weight variation, hardness and friability and show enhanced disintegration time, swelling behavior, drug release and mucoadhesion. In vitro drug release of batch F1 exhibits complete release of drug in 24 hr with zero order release kinetics. Comparative mucoadhesive strength was studied using chicken ileum by texture analyzer and revealed higher mucoadhesion of tablet containing ThioGK. From the above study, ThioGK was suitability exploited as mucoadhesive sustained release matrix tablet.