Extraction, Characterization and Evaluation of Film Forming Capacity of Natural Polymer

Nowadays natural or herbal products are more often used in comparison to synthetic products because of their low toxicity, biodegradability, biocompatibility and cheaper cost. An effort has been made to design and characterize buccal films of glimepiride using natural polymer. The natural polymer was extracted from Trigonella foenumgraecum L(Methi) seed. The polymer was extracted by solvent extraction method and was characterized for different parameters i.e., physical characteristics, bulk density, tapped density, Carr’s index, swelling index, pH and angle of repose. Solubility behavior of the isolated mucilage, with different solvents, was also studied. It was found that mucilage was insoluble in cold water but soluble in hot water. The buccal films were formulated using solvent casting technique. The main polymer used was Methi polymer. Different concentrations of polymer were used in the development of buccal film. The formulated films were evaluated for different parameters i.e., surface pH, weight uniformity, tensile strength, disintegration, swelling index, in vitro drug release, drug content, thickness and folding endurance. pH of the formulated films was between 6.8 and 7.4. The drug content of films was in the range of 7.3-9.3. In vitro drug release study showed an average 85% drug release from all the formulated films upto 6 hrs. Swelling index of the formulated films showed good swelling upto 2 hrs. It was showed that Formulation F3 was the best formulation among all the formulations. In the optimized batch, the polymer concentration was 300 mg/25 ml.