Application of Analytical Hierarchy Process to Select Best Method for the Preparation of Antidiabetic Drug Loaded Nanoparticles

In this study, Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) was employed to select the best method for the preparation of Nateglinide (NTG)loaded nanoparticles. There are various techniques available for the development of nanoparticles like Nanoprecipitation or Solvent displacement, Ionic gelation, Solvent evaporation method etc. and choosing the best method is a crucial one. AHP is one of the widely used multiple criteria decision making methods to solve the unstructured problems. It has unique advantages when important elements of the decision are difficult to compare or qualify. The following steps were involved in the AHP process: 1. Develop a hierarchy model, 2. Pair wise comparison of various alternatives and 3. Perform consistency verification. By using saaty’s scale, pair wise comparisons were made to analyze the relative criteria. The best alternative selected was based on the highest priority. The result indicates that the built pair wise comparisons were reliable and also found that the solvent evaporation technique is best method for the nanoparticles preparation. Nateglinide-loaded ethyl cellulose nanoparticles were formulated by the selected solvent evaporation method and it shows the particle size, polydispersity index and zeta potential were within acceptable limits. Drug content and entrapment efficiency of the NTG-loaded Ethyl cellulose (EC) nanoparticles were 86.76 % and 81.06 %, respectively. This study concludes that the AHP was viable and effective tool for selecting a most suitable method for the fabrication of NTG-loaded EC nanoparticles.