Comparative antioxidant potential of Withania somnifera based herbal formulation prepared by traditional and non-traditional fermentation processes

AbstractBackgroundAshwagandharishtha is a liquid polyherbal formulation traditionally prepared by fermentation process using the flowers of Woodfordia fruticosa. It contains roots of Withania somnifera as a major crude drug. Alcohol generated during the fermentation causes the extraction of water insoluble phytoconstituents. Yeasts present on the flowers are responsible for this fermentation.MethodsTotal nine formulations of ashwagandharishtha were prepared by fermentation process using traditional Woodfordia fruticosa flowers (ASG-WFS) and using yeasts isolated from the same flowers. During fermentation, kinetic of alcohol generation, sugar consumption, changes in pH and withanolides extraction were studied. All the formulations were tested for in vitro antioxidant potential by 1,1-diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging, hydrogen peroxide scavenging and total reducing power assay. The results were compared with standard ascorbic acid.ResultsTraditional formulation (ASG-WFS) showed the highest activity (p < 0.001) relative to other formulations and standard ascorbic acid. ASG-WFS showed significant (DPPH) free radical scavenging (78.75%) and hydrogen peroxide scavenging (69.62%) at the concentration of 1000μg/mL and 100μg/mL, respectively.ConclusionTraditional process is the best process for preparing ashwagandharishtha to obtain significant antioxidant activity

Response surface based co-optimization of release kinetics and mucoadhesive strength for an oral mucoadhesive tablet of cefixime trihydrate

Purpose: To design an oral mucoadhesive tablet of cefixime trihydrate using response surface methodology (RSM), and further to investigate the influence of formulation variables on drug release, and mucoadhesive strength. Methods: Tablets were prepared by direct compression method. A 23 factorial design was used to identify key independent variables affecting the drug release and mucoadhesive strength of formulation. The experimental data were analyzed statistically and the adequacy of fitted response was established through analysis of variance (ANOVA). The mechanism of drug release was investigated in detail by fitting the data to various kinetic models using PCP-DISSO V3 program. Results: Batch M3 showed the potential to retard the drug release and possessed significant mucoadhesive strength of 32.60 ± 0.1025 g. ANOVA results were substantiated by the Pareto analysis (p value <0.05) suggesting that the amount of carbopol (CP) 974P was the major factor affecting the studied responses. All the experimental batches followed either Higuchi or Peppas model and had release exponent (n) within 0.221–0.874. A distinct shift from fickian diffusion to anomalous transport of drug was noted with an increase in amount of CP 974P. Conclusion: Cefixime trihydrate can be effectively formulated as an oral controlled release mucoadhesive tablet using RSM, and it is possible to achieve adequate mucoadhesive strength and the desired release profile with the optimum combination of polymers

Response surface based optimization of system variables for liquid chromatographic analysis of candesartan cilexetil

A statistical optimization method was successfully employed to study the effect of system variables on the chromatographic analysis of candesartan cilexetil. The effect of simultaneously varying the flow rate, temperature and concentration of acetonitrile in the mobile phase in water (0.05% O-phosphoric acid (0.05% OPA)) was studied to optimize the method to obtain excellent chromatographic responses. The optimum conditions were determined with the help of response surface methodology (RSM) using Plackett–Burman designs. From the response surface graphs, the optimum regions were selected to be −1, +1 and +1 for flow rate (0.8 ml/min), temperature (25 °C) and concentration of acetonitrile in water (0.05% OPA) (80%, v/v), respectively. Pareto ranking indicated that the most important variable affecting the selected responses was temperature. Linearity was found in the range of 10 of 50 μg/ml, with a significantly high correlation coefficient (r2 = 0.9989). The limits of detection and quantitation were 0.12 and 0.33 μg/ml, respectively. The developed method was validated for accuracy, precision, linearity, range, and specificity. The method was successfully used to analyze a tablet formulation to assess the chromatographic performance, and it was found to be 99.03%, with a standard deviation of ±0.04