FORMULATION AND INVITRO EVALUATION OF BUDESONIDE MICROSPHERES FOR COLON TARGETING

Microspheres are one of the drug delivery systems used to target drug at the desired site. The objective of the present study was to prepare, characterize and evaluate colon targeted microspheres of budesonide for the treatment of ulcerative colitis. Microspheres were prepared by ionotropic gelation process using tripolyphosphate as cross-linking agent. Budesonide containing chitosan microspheres were coated with eudragit S-100 by solvent evaporation technique to prevent drug release in the stomach. Prepared microspheres were evaluated for particle size, surface morphology, entrapment efficiency and in vitro drug release. The microspheres formed have rough surface and spherical shape as observed in scanning electron microscopy. Particle size increases with increasing concentration of polymer and entrapment efficiency ranged from 77-92%. All values are statistically significant. It was observed that the coated microspheres showed no release in the simulated gastric fluid, negligible release in the simulated intestinal fluid and maximum release in presence of rat caecal content. Budesonide microspheres prepared with chitosan show promising result in in vitro studies.