Development and in vitro evaluation of ibuprofen mouth dissolving tablets using solid dispersion technique.

The aim of present study was to prepare and evaluate mouth dissolving tablets of ibuprofen (IBU). Ternary solid dispersion (SD) of IBU was prepared using PEG 4000 as carrier and Tween 80 as surfactant. The SD formulations were prepared by solvent evaporation and melt solvent method by varying ratio of PEG 4000. Different weight ratio of carrier, drug and surfactant 5 : 5 : 1, 10 : 5 : 1, 25 : 5 : 1, 35 : 5 : 1 and 45 : 5 : 1 was taken. The prepared SD formulations were characterized by Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FT-IR) spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and in vitro drug release. Mouth dissolving tablets of IBU were formulated using optimized SD formulation of carrier : drug : surfactant ratio, 10 : 5 : 1 along with super-disintegrants. The best developed formulation was compared with marketed tablet product of IBU. From IR and XRD studies, it may be concluded that there is change in crystalline form of drug into amorphous during formation of SD. From DSC studies, it was predicted that drug was completely dissolved in the carrier. Mouth dissolving tablets containing Ac-Di-Sol (12%) as super-disintegrant showed the fastest disintegration (202s) and in vitro drug release (84.57%). The release pattern of all developed formulations followed Peppas-Korsmeyer model as the plot between log cumulative % drug released versus log time showed good linearity (r>0.99) with a comparatively high slope (n) value within the range of 0.44-0.67. The tablets containing SD exhibited better dissolution profile than commercial tablets.