Formulation and Evaluation of Taste Masked Orally Disitegrating Tablets of Diclofenac sodium

The purpose of this research was to mask the intensely bitter taste of diclofenac sodium and to formulate an orally-disintegrating tablet (ODT)) of the taste-masked drug. The methods commonly employed for achieving effective taste masking include various physical and chemical methods that prevent the drug substance from interaction with the taste buds. In this present study we have used veegum(magnesium aluminum silicate) as the taste masking agent and sodium starch glycolate and croscarmellose sodium as superdisintegrants.Granules of diclofenac sodium were prepared using different ratios of veegum (1:0.5, 1:1, 1:1.5, 1:2) by wet granulation method and evaluated for pre-compression parameters . With the help of invitro and invivo taste evaluation the optimum ratio (1:1.5) of the drug –veegum was determined. Fast dissolving tablets of diclofenac sodium were prepared using this ratio of drug – veegum and the superdisintegrants (2-5%) and evaluated for post compression parameters. Effect of superdisintegrants on wetting time, disintegrating time, fineness of dispersion, drug content, in-vitro release, have been studied. The results indicated that as the concentration of superdisintegrants increases disintegration time, dispersion time and invitro dissolution time decreases. Based on these tests the formulations containing 5% of sodium starch glycolate and croscarmellose sodium were selected as the optimum formulations. Short-term stability studies on promising formulations indicated that there were no significant changes .From this study, it can be concluded that taste masked diclofenac sodium fast disintegrating tablets can be successfully prepared using veegum as a taste masking agent (1:1.5) and the sodium starch glycolate and croscarmellose sodium (5%) as superdisintegrants.