Formulation and <i>In Vitro </i>Evaluation of Gastroretentive Theophylline Floating Tablets

Abstract

The main aim of the present investigation was to formulate and evaluate gastroretentive floating tablets of theophylline. Theophylline, a brochodialator, used in the treatment of asthma, has good absorption at the gastric pH. Therefore, a floating drug delivery system in a gastric pH could deliver the drug in a slow and sustained manner which could be a useful for broncho dilation in the treatment of asthma. The formulated gastroretentive tablets of theophylline were evaluated for various parameters such as weight variation, hardnesss, friability, drug content, swelling index, buoyancy time and drug release studies. Among the different formulations, formulation F7 prepared using HPMC:Carbopol (1:1 ratio) exhibited better release profile (93.36%) for 8 hours and this batch was selected as an ideal batch. The release of theophylline from the ideal batch was found to follow diffusion mechanism.