Preparation and Characterization of Albendazole Nanosuspensions for Oral Delivery

ABSTRACT

During the last 10 years, the formulation of drugs as nanocrystals has rapidly evolved into a mature drug delivery strategy, with currently five products on the market. The major characteristic of these systems is the rapid dissolution velocity, enabling bioavailability enhancement after oral administration. Albendazole, a lipophilic anthelmintic drug, has low solubility and bioavailability. This study describes the preparation of an albendazole nanosuspension achieved by high-pressure homogenization and the lyophilized/spray-dried nanocrystal powder. The aim was to obtain a stable nanosuspension/nanocrystal with an increased drug saturation solubility and dissolution velocity. The effect of the process parameters, such as pressure and number of cycle on particle size distribution and polydispersity index of the nanosuspension, was investigated. The homogenization procedure was optimized with regard to particle size and long-term stability. The effect of type and ratio of stablizer were also studied. The characteristics of the albendazole nanosuspension/nanocrystal, such as particle size, zeta potential, crystalline state, and morphology, were evaluated. The solubility and dissolution experiments were performed to verify the obvious improvement of the dissolution behavior compared with commercial product.

KEYWORDS:

• albendazole
• nanocrystals
• nanosuspensions
• physicochemical evaluation

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Facilities were obtained from Torrent Research Center, Ahmedabad, High Security Animal Disease Laboratory, Bhopal, and Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysore.