Vaginal chitosan tablets with clotrimazole-design and evaluation of mucoadhesive properties using porcine vaginal mucosa, mucin and gelatine.

Topical administration of clotrimazole represents the common use therapy in the antimycotic genitourinary tract treatment. Due to the fast self-cleaning action of the vagina, commercially available vaginal dosage forms with clotrimazole cannot assure prolonged contact time with mucosa, therefore the main objective of this study was to develop a dosage form for vaginal administration of clotrimazole using chitosan-a biodegradable and biocompatible derivative of chitin. Tablets mucoadhesive properties were examined using texture analyser under the presence of porcine vaginal mucosa and two different models of adhesive layers- mucin gel and gelatine discs. In addition, friability, hardness, swelling behaviour, residence time, surface morphology of the performed tablets, the in vitro release profile of clotrimazole and clotrimazole release kinetics were determined. The release of clotrimazole from formulations with 25 or 40% of chitosan (F2 and F3) followed non Fickian diffusion through chitosan-gel layer and was retarded up to 6 h. Additionally, tablets F2 showed the best results in terms of mucoadhesive properties and appeared to be a good alternative to commercially available antimycotic vaginal dosage forms.