UTILIZATION OF ACRYLAMIDE AND NATURAL POLYSACCHARIDE BASED POLYMERIC NETWORKS IN PH CONTROLLED RELEASE OF 5-AMINO SALICYLIC ACID

In this paper, psyllium (Psy) and acrylamide (AAm) based superabsorbent, synthesized using potassium persulphate (KPS) as an initiator and hexamethylene tetramine (HTMA) as a crosslinker, has been investigated for its swelling behaviour in distilled water as a function of time, temperature and pH. The hydrogel has further been applied for controlled delivery of 5-amino salicylic acid (5-ASA) under different pH conditions at 37 degrees C. It has been found to show Fickian type mechanism as the drug release showed diffusion coefficient less than 0.50 for all the pH conditions. The gel characteristic constant has been found to show 6.9 x 10(-2), 20.61 x 10(-2) and 33.4 x 10(-2) values for pH 4.0, 7.0 and 9.2, respectively. The initial diffusion coefficient has been found to show greater values than late diffusion coefficient confirming greater release at the early stages of the drug release than that in the late stages.