Formulation and Taste Masking of Metronidazole Oral Disintegrating Tablets by a Novel Approach

The anti-protozoal drug, metronidazole, is developed as an oral disintegrating tablet (ODT) to treat amoebiasis and to bypass hepatic metabolism. The work aimed to prepare, taste-masking oral disintegrating tablets of metronidazole using different proportions of the drug and disintegrants in various ratios by an effervescent method. The ODT was developed by direct compression with various concentrations of super disintegrating agents (1-7%). In this technique, sodium bicarbonate and tartaric acid were used to generate effervescence. The formulated tablets were assessed for physicochemical characteristics. The results of FTIR spectroscopy indicated the stable character of metronidazole. In vitro studies revealed that batch F6 was having a 97.65% cumulative amount of drug release at 20th minute compared to other formulations. Due to the effervescent method, there was a significant increase in drug release, seen at the 1:1.5 ratio. Taste evaluation studies were conducted on healthy human volunteers.