Controlled Release of Bi-Layered EGCG Tablets Using 3D Printing Techniques

Epigallo-catechin Gallate (or EGCG) is a polyphenol which is withdrawn from green tea and is commercially available as Epigallocatechin gallate. Epigallo-catechin gallate is known to have been used as dye and food colorants, but it also has many medicinal properties like anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, anti-diabetic, anti-obesity, and anti-cancer. Keeping these medical properties in mind, in the present research paper, a 3D printing technique evolving a desktop based 3D printer to extrude tablets along with the active drug ingredient and other excipients that are used as binders and disintegrants. The method adapted in the formulation of a3D printed tablet in this research makes the tablet suitable for immediate and sustained release and does not affects it's certain physical and mechanical properties such as hardness, friability, and weight variation. The tablets which are extruded from the 3D printer are the bi-layer tablets with controlled release. With the involvement of the 3D printer, the cost of printing the bi-layered tablets have found to be very low which makes the method cost efficient. The output bi-layer tablet has been developed using various analysis and specified standard apparatus and method so that the set standards of the tablet does not get affected. The immediate release and sustained release methods were studied separately. The final stage of the research completes when the 3D printed tablets with set time intervals for the initial and sustained release and without changing the set mechanical properties of the tablet are obtained.