Swelling and drug release behavior of metformin HCl-loaded tamarind seed polysaccharide-alginate beads.

The paper describes the preparation, characterization, in vitro swelling and in vitro drug release of metformin HCl-loaded tamarind seed polysaccharide (TSP)-alginate beads were prepared by ionotropic-gelation technique and using CaCl2 as cross-linker. The prepared beads exhibited 32.73 ± 1.41% of drug loading (%), 94.86 ± 3.92% of drug encapsulation efficiency (%), and 1.24 ± 0.07 mm of average bead size. The bead surface morphology was analyzed by SEM. The drug-polymer interaction in the bead matrix was analyzed by FTIR analyses. These metformin HCl-loaded ionotropically gelled TSP-alginate beads demonstrated sustained in vitro drug release profile over 10h. These in vitro drug release exhibited pH-dependent drug release behavior. The in vitro drug release from these metformin HCl-loaded beads followed controlled-release (zero-order) pattern with super case-II transport mechanism. The swelling and degradation of these metformin HCl-loaded polymeric beads were found to be influenced by the pH of test mediums.