FORMULATION AND EVALUATION OF FLURBIPROFEN FAST DISINTEGRATING TABLETS USING NATURAL SUPERDISINTEGRANTS

ABSTRACTObjective: The main objective of this research was to formulate Fast disintegrating tablets of Flurbiprofen incorporating superdisintegrants, isolated from natural sources like Plantago ovata (PO) seeds, Lepidium sativum (LS) seeds and agar-agar.Methods: Superdisintegrants were isolated from their natural sources using reported methods. Swelling index and hydration capacity was determined for the natural superdisintegrants to know their disintegration capacity. The tablet formulations were designed using isolated natural superdisintegrants. The powder blends were evaluated for pre-compressional parameters like angle of repose, bulk density, tapped density, carr's index, and hausner's ratio. Fast disintegrating tablets were prepared by direct compression method. The compressed tablets were characterized for post compression parameters.Results: All formulations had hardness, friability, weight variation and drug content within the pharmacopoeial limits. The wetting time was 84 to 254 sec, in vitro disintegration time was between 59.2 to 221 sec, and in-vitro drug release was as low as 11.80% (LS1) to a maximum of 98.99% (PO4) after 4 min of study. Among all, optimized formulation was PO4, as it showed good wetting time (84 sec), fastest disintegration time (59.2 sec), dispersion time (135 sec) and drug release of 98.99.% within 4 min.Conclusion: Flurbiprofen FDT's were successfully developed using isolated natural disintegrants. The natural disintegrants isolated showed promising results and can prove as effective alternative for synthetic disintegrants

Study of Drug Prescribing Pattern in Pediatric Outpatient Department at a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital

Background: Infants and children suffer from frequent but usually non serious illnesses and are more vulnerable to various adverse events related to drugs and poor understanding of instructions on prescription by the patient or caretakers were likely to cause medication error. The correct identification of an illness and its management with medications is a vital aspect of patient care, especially for paediatric population. So, prescribing pattern studies are very helpful in promoting the appropriate use of drugs in population. Objectives: It aims to obtain data on the current prescribing pattern in pediatric OPD at a tertiary care teaching hospital with ultimate goal to promote appropriate use of drugs. Methods: This study was conducted in 62 pediatric patients of either sex visiting Pediatric out-patient department over a period of three months at NMCH and RC, Raichur, Karnataka. Results: Prescription analysis showed that the average number of drugs per prescription was 3.32. Drugs were mostly prescribed by brand name (98.06%), Injections (4.83%) were least prescribed, drugs prescribed from Essential Drug List was 48.54%. Antibiotics were most prescribed class of drugs (33.9%). Conclusion: The study concludes that polypharmacy was slightly seen in prescriptions. Diagnosis of the patient was recorded for most of the prescriptions. There is need to conduct many such studies at regular interval as it is useful for auditing large number of prescriptions to find out early signals of the irrational drug use. Our study evaluated drug use pattern only from the outpatients hence prescription pattern may vary among inpatients. Keywords: Prescribing pattern, Infants, WHO core prescribing indicators, Polypharmacy, Generic nam