Formulation and In-vitro evaluation of pH sensitive oil entrapped buoyant beads of amoxicillin

A gastro retentive pH sensitive system has been a frontier approach to release the drug in controlled manner in stomach and duodenum. The aim of the study is to develop reliable formulation of amoxicillin which will release the drug in controlled way at specific site with acidic pH stimulus present in the gastric region. In the present investigation pectin based oil entrapped micro gel beads were prepared by ionic gelation technique using castor oil and mineral oil. The developed beads were evaluated in term of diameter, surface morphology, floating lag time, encapsulation efficiency, in vitro drug release.Prepared microbeads were regular and spherical in shape. The formulation exhibited sustained release profile and was best fitted in the Peppas model with n < 0.45. Subsequent coating of microbeads exhibited zero-order sustained pattern of amoxicillin release up to 8 hrs.The Results provides evidence that optimized gel bead may be used to incorporate antibiotics like amoxicillin and may be effective when administered locally in the stomach to cure microbial infection. Keywords: Amoxicillin (Am); Calcium pectinate bead; Residential time; pH Sensitive; Ethyl cellulose (EC)