DESIGN AND EVALUATION OF GASTRORETENTIVE NIFEDIPINE FLOATING TABLETS IN THE TREATMENT OF HYPERTENSION

Gastro retentive floating tablets of Nifedipine were prepared using various grades of HPMC as a release retarding agent. Nifedipine is a dihydropyridine derivative effectively used in the management of various cardiovascular diseases in long term therapy, the biological half life is only 2 hours. The main aim of the present study is to prolong the drug release upto 24 hours. The tablets were prepared by direct compression method and the formulations were evaluated different physic chemical and dissolution studies. The formulations from each polymer F6, F10 and F20 gave better controlled drug release and floating properties in comparison to the other formulations. HPMC K 250 PH PRM, HPMC K 750 PH PRM and HPMC K 1500 PH PRM were used in different ratios to check the release retarding mechanism and duration. Among all the formulation F10 was selected as optimized formulation because it showed maximum drug release FTIR studies results revealed that there was no incompatibility between drug and excipients. The optimized formulation was best fitted in Zero Order and Korsmeyer-Peppas. Nifedipine floating tablets can be an innovative and promising approach for the delivery of Nifedipine for the treatment of hypertension (high blood pressure) and angina (chest pain) for prolonged period of time. Keywords: Nifedipine, Floating tablets, Hypertension, HPMC, Floating lag time.