Sustained release from inert wax matrixes I: drug-wax combinations.

The melting and energy characteristics of several drug-wax combinations were investigated using differential scanning calorimetry. The phase diagrams of binary mixtures of tripelennamine hydrochloride and tolazoline hydrochloride with carnauba wax and castor wax showed no eutectic formation and gave no indication that a significant interaction was involved. However, in tripelennamine mixtures, a slight depression in the drug melting point was observed at around 50% concentration. For ternary systems, i.e., drug, carnauba wax, and stearyl alcohol, thermograms of samples prepared by a fusion method differed slightly from those obtained with mixtures formulated by dissolving all ingredients in chloroform and evaporating the solvent. However, the location of the peak of each component remained essentially the same. A plot of melting point versus concentration of each compound showed insignificant changes in melting point and indicated that no interaction was occurring. The phase diagrams suggested that the combinations are strictly physical and that it is the physical characteristics, such as the hardness and composition of the core and drug particle size, that influence the release or dissolution of drug from the waxy matrix.