Formulation and Evaluation of Bio-adhesive Buccal Drug Delivery of Esomeprazole Magnesium Tablets

The purpose of this research work was to establish mucoadhesive buccal devices of esomeprazole magnesium bilayered buccal devices. The tablets were prepared by using carbpol-934 (CP), hydroxy propyl Methyl cellulose K4M (HPMC K 4M), hydroxy propyl Methyl cellulose E5 (HPMC E5) as bioadhesive polymers to impart mucoadhesion in drug: polymer ratio of 1:1, 1:1.25, 1:1.5 and ethyl cellulose to act as an impermeable backing layer. Buccal devices are evaluated by different parameters such as weight uniformity, hardness, thickness, content uniformity, surface pH, swelling index, ex-vivo mucoadhesion strength, ex-vivo mucoadhesion time, invitro drug release and invitro drug permeation. The buccal bilayered tablet showed slow release of drug along increased bioavailability. The ex-vivo drug release of F8 formulation showed 84.28±0.76 in 7hrs. The mechanism of drug release was found to be following zero order along obeying peppas and Hixson crowell release kinetics, which was perfectly suitable for a controlled release formulation, stability of the drug in the optimised buccal tablets found to be stable in human saliva for 6 hours. FTIR studies show no interaction between drug and polymers. The present study concludes that mucoadhesive buccal devices of esomeprazole can be a good way to bypass the extensive hepatic first-pass metabolism and to improve bioavailability of esomeprazole.