ABSTRACT:
An attempt was made to design and evaluate hydrodynamically balanced systems (HBS) of Diltiazem HCl hydrochloride using Locust bean gum and Methocel K4M as the polymers. All tablets contained an effervescent base consisting of sodium bicarbonate and citric acid. The tablets were prepared by direct compression method. All the designed nine batches of formulations were evaluated for hardness, friability, weight variation, drug content uniformity, swelling index, in vitro buoyancy, and drug release pattern. Estimation of diltiazem HCl in the prepared HBS was carried out by extracting drug with 0.1N HCl and analyzed at 236.4 nm spectrophotometricaly. All formulations had floating lag time below 3 minutes and constantly floated on dissolution medium for more than 24 hours. These studies indicate that the proper balance between Locust bean gum and Methocel K4M can produce a desired drug dissolution profile. The proposed formulation showed good physicochemical properties, good stability and controlled drug release pattern, thereby improving the bioavailability of the drug.