Formulation and Evaluation of Liquisolid Compacts of BCS Class II Drug Ketoprofen

Aims: The main objective of the current research work is to develop liquisolid compacts of BCS Class II drug ketoprofen with an intention to enhance the solubility of drug by applying liquisolid technique.

Place and Duration of Study: Smriti College of Pharmaceutical Education between June 2018 June 2019.

Methodology: Initially liquid medication was obtained by dissolving drug in suitable solvent. Saturation solubility studies were performed in various hydrophilic non-volatile solvents to select the solvent showing highest solubility for drug. This liquid medication was admixed with calculated amounts of carrier material (Avicel PH 102) and coating material (Cab-O-Sil) using Spireas mathematical model in order to obtain liquisolid formulations. Further, this powder mass of liquisolid system was compressed to form Ketoprofen liquisolid compact formulations ranging from TK1 to TK9. They were further subjected to post compression evaluation tests such as weight variation, hardness, friability, content uniformity, disintegration and in vitro dissolution studies.

Results: Based on the solubility studies, PEG 400 was selected as solvent for ketoprofen drug. Rheological properties for the prepared liquisolid powder system were performed for all the formulations and they showed acceptable flow properties. The results obtained for the post compression evaluation tests of all the prepared liquisolid compacts were present within the acceptable limits. The disintegration time observed for all formulations were within 5 minutes. The results of in vitro release of all the liquisolid compacts showed enhanced release rates compared to that of directly compressed tablet. Lquisolid compact formulation TK7 showed maximum release of 97.62% of drug within 12 minutes in pH 7.4 phosphate buffer which was much higher when compared to that of directly compressed tablet. The SEM and PXRD studies for TK7 revealed conversion of crystalline to molecularly dispersed form of drug in the obtained liquisolid formulation. DSC and FTIR studies also revealed that there was no presence of any significant interaction between drug and excipients involved in the formulation.

Conclusion: Finally, it could be concluded that Liquisolid technique was successful in enhancing the solubility and further dissolution profile of BCS Class II drug Ketoprofen.