Locust bean gum in the development of sustained release mucoadhesive macromolecules of aceclofenac

The study shows the development and optimization of locust bean gum (LBG)–alginate mucoadhesive macromolecules containing aceclofenac through ionotropic-gelation using 32 factorial design. The effect of amount of LBG and sodium alginate on drug entrapment efficiency (%DEE), % mucoadhesion at 8 h (M8) and % in vitro drug release at 10 h (%Q10 h) were optimized. The percentage yield, average size and DEE of macromolecules were found within the range of 93.19 to 96.65%, 1.328 ± 0.11 to 1.428 ± 0.13 μm, and 56.37 to 68.54%, respectively. The macromolecules were also characterized by SEM, FTIR and DSC. The in vitro drug release from these macromolecules (84.95 ± 2.02 to 95.33 ± 1.56% at 10 h) exhibited sustained release (first-order) pattern with super case-II transport mechanism. The swelling and mucoadhesivity of these macromolecules were affected by pH of the medium. The design established the role of derived polynomial equations and plots in predicting the values of dependent variables for the preparation and optimization.