Development and evaluation of sodium alginate-basil seeds mucilage beads as a suitable carrier for controlled release of metformin.

Sodium alginate (SA) is a natural biopolymer that is used as biodegradable and non-toxic material in medical and pharmaceutical fields. Although crosslinked SA with calcium ions in the presence of monovalent salts are unstable. The aim of this work is to employe plant mucilage in combination of SA beads to improve the properties of SA beads. SA beads containing metformin drug (MET) were modified using basil seed mucilage (BSM) to achieve controlled release was investigated. The presence of BSM in the SA structure results in more stability, less swelling, and consequently lower release. The effect of pH 1.2 and pH 7.4 on its release and swelling of the beads was studied, and the results showed that the lowest swelling and release was from the acidic environment. Sodium Tripolyphosphate (TPP) as a cross-linker in the bead structure caused a lower release and swelling. The chemical structure of beads was confirmed by FTIR, SEM indicated the porous structure of SA bead and continuous structure of SA/BSM bead and DSC indicated that the presence of BSM in the bead structure decreased the chain motility. Also, cytotoxicity of BSM was investigated by MTT method, and the mucilage toxicity was not confirmed until 3 ml.