Design and In-vitro Characterization of Nimodipine Effervescent Floating Tablets

Abstract

Nimodipine is a calcium channel blocker originally developed for the treatment of high blood pressure. It is not frequently used for this indication, but has shown good results in preventing a major complication of subarachnoid hemorrhage (a form of cerebral hemorrhage) termed vasospasm; this is now the main use of nimodipine. In the present research work effervescent floating formulation of Nimodipine by using various polymers. Initially analytical method development was done for the drug molecule. Absorption maxima was determined based on that calibration curve was developed by using different concentrations. Gas generating agent sodium bicarbonate was used. Then the formulation was developed by using different concentrations of polymers of various polymers. The formulation blend was subjected to various pre formulation studies, flow properties and all the formulations were found to be good indicating that the powder blend has good flow properties. Among all the formulations the formulation F3 prepared by using Xanthan gum  45 mg produced maximum drug release compared to other formulations hence it was considered as the optimized formulation. The optimized formulation dissolution data was subjected to release kinetics, from the release kinetics data it was evident that the formulation followed zero order kinetics of drug release.