ABSTRACT:
Nature is a huge enigma, having an inexhaustible plate of mysteries to fill man's insatiable thirst of knowledge Two such products of nature, alginate and chitosan, have potential to be used in wide variety of encapsulated drug formulations. Diabetes Mellitus is a multi-factorial and multi-consequential chronic metabolic disorder with the hallmark feature of hyperglycaemia. Current therapy through oral anti-diabetic drugs and subcutaneous administration of insulin suffers from serious disadvantages of occasional hypoglycaemia due to unmonitored dosage and lipoatrophy. These approaches don't mimic normal physiological pattern of insulin release. Thus, bio-compatible oral insulin formulations, if made possible, would prove to be a boon. This preliminary study included 100IU insulin encapsulated in 1% CS (in 5% acetic acid) + 2% ALG (in 2% CaCl). Insulin encapsulated CS ALG beads were prepared by simple extrusion method. At pH 74 (intestinal), swelling ratio of coated beads is significantly higher indicating that this formulation can be used for intestinal peptide drug delivery. SEM gave an average size of 30-50mm.Also, shift of characteristic bond peaks in FTIR spectra of CS/ALGINS loaded beads is indicative of insulin encapsulation. Nitrogen in EDX results validates the interaction between chitosan and alginate, hence, the blending. Release rate graph suggests, in 9hrs maximum cumulative release achieved was near to 20%. Entrapment Efficiency of beads was calculated as 39%. Therefore, release was about 50%. The best linearity, with R'-0.85, was found in Higuchi's equation plot indicating the release of drug from matrix as a square root of time dependent process based on Fickian diffusion. Korsmeyer Peppas model, n>0.89, suggest release mechanism to be Super Case II Transport.
Cite this article:
Kumar and Thakur (2016). A Bio-Ethnopharmacology Approach: Development and Characterization of Chitosan-Alginate Polymeric Formulation for Oral Insulin Administration. Journal of Ravishankar University (Part-B: Science), 29(1), pp.70-71.