Development of sericin/alginate beads of ketoprofen using experimental design: Formulation and in vitro dissolution evaluation

The development of new forms of drugs from the current existing active principles is an alternative to the costly and time-consuming process of developing new ones. The blend of sericin and alginate has been proposed as a polymer matrix for the incorporation of ketoprofen as a modified formulation. An experimental design was performed by varying the initial amount of alginate and drug added. Incorporation efficiency, drug loading, and release time of 85% were applied as response variables. Drug loading was statistically affected by both independent variables and the highest value (40.25 +/- 0.23%) was achieved for the lower amount of alginate and higher amount of ketoprofen initially added. The incorporation efficiency was statistically affected only by the amount of alginate and its higher values were reached by the smaller amount of alginate added. Time to release 85% was not affected by any of the independent variables, although the longer times were achieved for the greater amount of drug added. In general, the best particle produced was K3, produced with the lowest amount of alginate and higher amount of ketoprofen initially added. The characterization analyzes of SEM, FTIR, XRD, OM and TGA confirmed the incorporation of ketoprofen. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.