Formulation and Evaluation of Gastroretentive Floating Beads of an Oral Hypoglycemic Drug Glimepiride

In the present study, efforts were made to produce floating beads of glimepiride. The inquiry examined two materials renowned for their straight forward and consistent traits: polymers, namely sodium alginate, and poloxamer 188. Before preparation of floating beads, the polymeric mixture was subjected to foaming stability and foamability. Foamability was found to be in the range of 2.00 +/- 0.500 to 14.31 +/- 0.422% whereas foam stability was found to be 25.62 +/- 1.10 to 86.45 +/- 1.72 mins. Nine formulations of glimepiride buoyant beads were prepared, and different methods were employed to scrutinize their attributes, encompassing organoleptic properties, swelling index, buoyancy, drug entrapment, and scanning electron microscopy. Percentage yield was found in a range of 68.56 +/- 1.28 to 88.72 +/- 2.41. Percentage drug entrapment was found to be in a range of 88.61 +/- 2.32 to 96.27 +/- 3.16. The in vitro drug release tests revealed that the floating beads exhibited satisfactory results. These tests were conducted in 0.1N HCl solution at pH 1.2, showing a consistent release for up to 12 hours. The SEM images demonstrated the presence of bubbles within the beads, which led to the controlled release of the drug.