Enhancement of griseofulvin release from liquisolid compacts

The potential of hydrophilic aerogel formulations and liquisolid systems to improve the release of poorly soluble drugs was investigated using griseofulvin as model drug. The in vitro release rates of this drug formulated as directly compressed tablets containing crystalline griseofulvin were compared to aerogel tablets with the drug adsorbed onto hydrophilic silica aerogel and to liquisolid compacts containing the drug dissolved or suspended in PEG 300. Furthermore, the commonly used carrier and coating materials in liquisolid systems Avicel (R) and Aerosil (R) were replaced by Neusilin (R), an amorphous magnesium aluminometasilicate with an extremely high specific surface area of 339 m(2)/g to improve the liquisolid approach. Both the liquisolid compacts containing the drug dissolved in PEG 300 and the aerogel tablets showed a considerably faster drug release than the directly compressed tablets. With liquisolid compacts containing the drug suspended in PEG 300, the release rate increased with rising fraction of dissolved drug in the liquid portion. It could be shown that Neusilin (R) with its sevenfold higher liquid adsorption capacity than the commonly used Avicel (R) and Aerosil (R) allows the production of liquisolid formulations with lower tablet weights. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.