Sodium alginate/locust bean gum-g-methacrylic acid IPN hydrogels for "simvastatin" drug delivery

A novel type of interpenetrating polymer network (IPN) hydrogel beads composed of locust bean gum (LBG)-graft-methacrylic acid (MAA) and sodium alginate (SA) with different compositions were prepared by solution polymerization using potassium persulfate as an initiator. Simvastatin (SIM), an antiseptic drug material which has limited solubility in water was successfully encapsulated into these IPNs by varying the ratios of LBG-g-MAA and SA. These IPN hydrogels were characterized by different techniques such as Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffractometry. Further, the swelling and drug release studies were also investigated using these IPN blend beads under study. In vitro release studies show that the dependence of drug and composition of the polymers in the blends are playing an important role in these release studies. The release rates were fitted to an empirical equation to compute the diffusional exponent (n), which indicated a non-Fickian trend for the release of SIM up to 12 h. From the results, it is concluded that the blend beads of SA/(LBG-g-MMA) are a good platform for the drug release studies.