Vol. 7, Issue 10 (2018)

Author(s):
Sofia Konain and Sirisha Mittapally

Abstract:
Enteric coated tablets are tablets which are coated with polymers to prevent the release of drug in the stomach and allow the drug release in the small intestine. Enteric Coating is used to protect the active Pharmaceutical Ingredient from the acidic environment and to prevent gastric distress caused from a drug due to irritation. The purpose of this research work is formulation of enteric coated tablets using Synthetic and Natural polymers and comparing their release studies. Nine formulations of Rabeprazole core tablets were formulated from which F9 was found to be the optimized one. Then the optimized core tablet was coated with 4 different polymers- Eudragit L100, HPMC, Sodium Alginate and Shellac with different concentrations F1 to F16. Compatibility studies were performed which showed no interaction. The dissolution study shows that Eudragit L100 has 100% drug release and the natural polymers Sodium Alginate and Shellac were also equally effective. Therefore, it can be concluded based on the experimental studies that the natural polymers can also be a good alternative to synthetic polymers. Out of the two Natural Polymers, Shellac exhibited good performance compared to Sodium Alginate.