Microencapsulation of Tramadol Hydrochloride and Physicochemical Evaluation of Formulations

Abstract

The present project involves the microencapsulation of tramadol hydrochloride with ethocel using a non-solvent addition coacervation technique. The concentration of ethocel was varied to get a prolonged release profile. Then microparticles were compressed into tablets to study the variation of drug release between the microparticles and tablets. The microparticles were off white, aggregated and irregular in morphology having good percentage entrapment efficiency and percentage production yield. Dissolution study was made using USP XXIV apparatus I and II respectively, in 900 mL double distilled water at 50 rpm maintained at 37 °C. An Initial burst effect was noted in the drug release behavior. Polyisobutylene concentration affected inversely the rate of drug release from microparticles. Dissolution media and stirring speed affected insignificantly (p>.05) the release pattern. Tramadol hydrochloride tablets showed good stability and reproducibility. UV and FTIR spectroscopy and X-Ray diffractometry proved that tramadol hydrochloride was completely and uniformly distributed in ethocel with out any strong interaction. The mechanism of drug release was anomalous diffusion that was best fit to Higuchi’s equation. It can be concluded that multi-unit, slow-release tramadol hydrochloride microparticles can be formulated efficiently with non-solvent addition coacervation technique using ethocel.