Development Of pH Sensitive Hydrogel for Intestinal Delivery of Amoxicillin Trihydrate using Carbopol-PEG400

A pH sensitive hydrogel using Carbopol-PEG 400 combination was prepared and loaded with amoxicillin trihydrate drug to study its sustained release. The hydrogel prepared was of physical nature. Two types of hydrogel were prepared with and without drug. The drug used was amoxicillin trihydrate. This drug is used to treat peptic ulcer in gastrointestinal tract. This drug becomes unstable in acidic environment of stomach. A pH sensitive hydrogel can be designed which can retain the drug in the polymer core at low pH values and release it at high pH value environment like gastrointestinal tract. Characterization of the hydrogel was done by SEM and FTIR and performance was studied by swelling method and in vitro drug release. FTIR studies gave the backbone structure of hydrogel carrying the drug. The surface morphology study by SEM showed that the prepared hydrogel was porous in nature. The swelling studies showed that the hydrogel swelled more in basic medium as the components were anionic in nature. The release profile showed 83.93% sustained drug release after 10hours. The carbopol-PEG400 hydrogel is suitable for the delivery of amoxicillin trihydrate as the drug is not stable in the stomach and can be delivered satisfactorily to the intestine where the pH is favourable.