Inclusion of piroxicam in mesoporous phosphate glass–ceramic and evaluation of the physiochemical characteristics

The mesoporous glass–ceramic (GC) was employed as a carrier to investigate its capability for pharmaceutical applications. Piroxicam (PX) as a model drug was loaded in the GC by using of solvent evaporation technique. The physicochemical properties and morphology of the powders were evaluated employing X-ray powder diffractometry (XRPD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The drug adsorption isotherms were assessed as well. Drug release profiles were examined by fitting the data to the 10 common kinetic models. The specific surface area, Vm (the volume of the N2 adsorbed on the 1 g of the GC when the monolayer is complete) and the average pore diameter of the GC powder before and after loading process were measured by the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) and Barrett–Joyner–Halenda (BJH) analysis benefiting N2 adsorption/desorption isotherms. The ideal loading of PX in the GC was 41.8%. The average pore diameter for the GC was determined to be about 10 nm. The Freundlich model was found to be the best adsorption isotherm. Decrease of the GC specific surface area and Vm values were observed after loading process. Drug release data were best fitted to the Weibull model with the shape factor of 0.4–0.7 signifying the Fickian diffusion of PX from the GC. Accordingly, the GC could be considered as a suitable adsorbent to develop an oral drug delivery system.