The effect of Plantago major seed mucilage combined with carbopol on the release profile and bioadhesive properties of propranolol HCl buccoadhesive tablets

The development of mucoadhesive polymers may be traced back to 1947, when gum tragacanth and dental adhesive powders were combined to form a vehicle for applying penicillin to oral mucosa. An improvement in this system resulted when CMC and petrolatum were combined to form the vehicle (1). In recent years, much interest has been shown in the development of bioadhesive systems. These dosage forms can be administered by different routes such as ocular, buccal, nasal, rectal, vaginal) either for local therapy or for systemic drug delivery. In particular, the buccal route appears to offer a series of advantages compared with other routes, such as rapid onset of action, high blood supply, avoidance of first pass effect and exposure of drug to gastrointestinal tract (2). Buccal drug delivery necessitates the use of Abstract Buccoadhesive drug delivery systems have distinct advantages in comparison with oral administration. Plant exudates like gum or mucilage are being studied for their use as pharmaceutical adjuvant. The aim of this study is to evaluate the properties of the Plantago major seed mucilage as a mucoadhesive agent and propranolol hydrochloride is chosen as a model drug. Mucoadhesive tablets of propranolol hydrochloride were formulated by combination of two mucoadhesive polymers include Carbopol 934P and Plantago major mucilage, and properties such as in vitro drug release, swelling, erosion, mucoadhesive force were studied. The results show increase in bioadhesive strength and decrease in release rate with increase in percent of Carbopol 934P, as F13 (containing Carbopol 934P alone) and F8 (containing mucilage alone) show the highest bioadhesive strength and highest release rate respectively and these results were matched to swelling results which decrease in swelling of matrices results in decrease in bioadhesion. Matrices with both Plantago major mucilage and Carbopol have the optimum drug release in bioadhesive formulation of propranolol tablets.