Diltiazem hydrochloride is a calcium channel blocker which is used for the treatment of hypertension and angina pectoris. Fast dissolving films of diltiazem hydrochloride were prepared by using solvent casting technique by using hydrophilic polymers HPMCE5, HPMCE15 and NaCMC alone and in combination with poly vinyl pyrrolidine. The excipients such as mannitol (as a sweetening agent) and citric acid (as a saliva stimulating agent) and propylene glycol (as a plasticizer). The films were subjected for evaluation tests such as thickness, weight variation, folding endurance, content uniformity, percentage moisture loss, percentage moisture absorption, surface pH test, disintegration time and in-vitro drug release. The influence of plasticizer on the release rate was also evaluated. The film prepared with Glycerin as plasticizer offered relatively rapid release of drug when compared with Propylene glycol and Poly ethylene glycol 400 plasticizers. Based on the evaluation tests the formulations prepared with HPMCE5 and poly vinyl pyrrolidine as polymer and glycerin as plasticizer was selected as optimized formulation. The optimized formulation has uniform thickness, neutral pH, very short disintegration time and in-vitro drug release was found to be 99.33% within 8 min. The dissolution rate followed first-order kinetics. A statistically significant difference between dissolution efficiencies of films formulated with different plasticizers was calculated using a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). The P value was found to be less than 0.05, which indicates that there was a significant difference between different plasticizers with respect to dissolution efficiencies
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