Research Journal of Pharmacy and Technology

Rizatriptan benzoate is used in the treatment of migraine and has bitter taste. The taste has to be masked in order to reduce its bitterness to increase its palatability and also to improve patient compliance. In the present study, attempts were undertaken to mask the bitter taste by complexation technique using ion exchange resins. Thus taste masked granules or resinates of Rizatriptan benzoate were formulated into the rapidly disintegrating tablet to achieve quicker onset of action and therefore to combat the migraine attacks in the fastest way. Tablets were prepared by direct compression method using various superdisintegrants like Indion 234, Crosscarmellose sodium (Ac-Di-Sol) and Sodium starch glycolate of about 1 -4% concentration. Efficient drug loading was obtained by batch process; the loading process was further optimized for resin type, pH of loading solution and drug: resin ratio. The complex was further evaluated for bulk density, angle of repose, drug release and was characterized by infrared spectroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Among all the designed formulations R4, R8 and R12 were found to be promising and displayed an in vitro dispersion time ranging 15 to 20s, which facilitates their faster dispersion. The drug release was, 99.28% from the batch R4, 98.26% from batch R8 and 97.48% from batch R12.