FORMULATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF ENTERIC COATED TABLETS OF PREDNISOLONE AS A COLON TARGETED DRUG DELIVERY

In the present investigation an attempt was made to prevent ulcerative colitis and to improve the patient compliance by developing enteric coated (EC) tablets of prednisolone and to reduce the side effects of anti inflammatory drugs in G.I.T. by developing conventional tablets of prednisolone by wet granulation technique and the prepared prednisolone based tablets were coated with different ratios of pectin and ethyl cellulose as enteric coating material by spraying organic system. The enteric coated tablets of prednisolone were subjected to an in vitro drug release study in the presence and absence of pectinolytic enzyme using simulated colonic fluid of pH 6.0 as the dissolution medium. The results showed that the degradation was very efficient with pectinolytic enzyme relative to other processes. Colon drug delivery is advantageous in the treatment of colonic disease, where oral deliveries of drugs are unstable or susceptible to enzymatic degradation in upper GI tract. In this study, coated tablets which were resistant to gastric and small intestinal pH conditions but dissolving in colonic pH conditions were fabricated. The results also demonstrated that pectin and ethyl cellulose can be successfully used for organic system to coat tablets for colon targeted delivery of drug. Among the four formulations, D batch results matched with our theoretical profile.