The bitter taste is one of the most important drug formulation problems. The unpleasant taste leads to noncompliance, which consequently decreases the therapeutic efficacy of the drug. Therefore, masking of bitter taste is very important in drug formulation. In this study an antihypertensive drug, valsartan, which is a weak acid with bitter taste, was used as a model drug to mask its taste with dowex2 (weak base anion exchange resin). The taste masking of a drug using ion exchange resin basically depends on the complex formation between the drug and a specific type of resin. Complex formation under various preparation conditions including; the ratio of drug to resin, mixing time, the pH of the processing medium and the concentration of valsartan was investigated in this study. Optimum conditions for complex formation and maximum drug load were obtained at a drug-resin ratio 1:8, mixing time 4 hours, pH 6.8, temperature 50º C and drug concentration 0.02% w/v. The drug resinate complex was evaluated for the drug content, taste, drug release and molecular properties. The resinate formation was confirmed using different analytical techniques like thermal analysis using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), spectroscopic method like Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and by X-ray powder diffraction analysis (XRPD).
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.