Formulation and Evaluation of Sublingual Tablet of Rabeprazole Sodium : Using Different Bioadhesive Polymers

The present work introduces a new tablet system for sublingual administration in which the tablet is based on interactive mixtures of components, consisting of carrier particles partially covered by fine dry particles of the drug, in this case Rabeprazole sodium. In the interests of increasing retention of the drug at the site of absorption in the oral cavity, a bioadhesive component was also added to the carrier particles. With this approach, it is possible to obtain rapid dissolution in combination with bioadhesive retention of the drug in the oral cavity. Rabeprazole sodium is an anti ulcer drug having oral bioavailability 52% due to hepatic first pass metabolism. This work aims to avoid degradation of drug in acidic environment of stomach. In this study, Rabeprazole sodium sublingual tablets were prepared by direct compression method using different bioadhesive polymers such as HPMC K4M and chitosan and sodium starch glycolate as a superdisintegrant. The effect of different concentration of polymers and superdisintegrating agents was measured by applying Box-Behnken design.