Development and In Vitro Evaluation of Mucoadhesive Buccal Tablets of Timolol Maleate

The present investigation is concerned with formulation and evaluation of mucoadhesive buccal tablets containing antihypertensive drug i.e. timolol maleate to circumvent the first pass effect and to improve its bioavailability with reduction in dosing frequency and also dose related side effects. The tablets were prepared by direct compression method. The mucoadhesive polymers used in formulation were chitosan, HPMC K4M and HPMC K15M. Tablets were tested for hardness, thickness, weight variation, friability, drug content, swelling, surface pH, bioadhesive strength and in vitro drug release properties. All tablets were acceptable with regard to hardness, thickness, weight variation and friability. The pH of all batches was in acceptable range of 5.6 to 6.6. Batch F10 showed maximum 101.22% drug content and batch F1 showed maximum swelling index of 59.23% after 6 hr. Batch F4 showed highest bioadhesive strength of 31.11gm and maximum drug release of 94.52% in 10 hr. The best mucoadhesive performance and in vitro drug release profile were exhibited by batch F4 and hence it was optimized.