In the present study, an attempt was made to develop floating microspheres for trimebutine maleate using different viscosity grades of ethyl cellulose as a release retarded material by solvent evaporation technique. The full 24 factorial design was followed, the study design involved the investigation of the effect of four independent factors, namely the polymer type (ethylcellulose 50, ethylcellulose 200), the drug/polymer (weight ratio at two levels (1:1 and 1:2), two types of external phase (methylene chloride and isopropyl alcohol) and stirring rate at two levels (500 rpm and 1000 rpm) leading to 16 formulae. The microspheres were characterized for yield, drug entrapment efficiency and particle size analysis. It was observed the four factors have significant effect on drug entrapment efficiency, yield and particle size analysis, but the stirring rate has non-significant effect on drug entrapment efficiency. The effect of polymer concentration on the in-vitro release of trimebutine maleate from the microspheres was also studied. It can be seen that by increasing the polymer concentration, decreases the rate of drug release from the microspheres dramatically. The best microspheres formulation was selected based on the characterization of microspheres and on the in-vitro release profile.
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