Synthesis and characterization of psyllium-NVP based drug delivery system through radiation crosslinking polymerization

In order to develop the hydrogels meant for the drug delivery, we have prepared psyllium-N-vinylpyrrolidone (NVP) based hydrogels by radiation induced crosslinking. Polymers were characterized with SEMs, FTIR and swelling studies. Swelling of the hydrogels was studied as a function of monomer concentration, total radiation dose, temperature, pH and [NaCl] of the swelling medium. The swelling kinetics of the hydrogels and release dynamics of anticancer model drug (5-fluorouracil) from the hydrogels have been carried out for the evaluation of swelling and drug release mechanism. It has been observed that diffusion exponent ‘n’ have 0.8, 0.9, 0.8 and gel characteristics constant ‘k’ have 9.22 × 10⁻³, 2.06 × 10⁻³, 11.72 × 10⁻³ values for the release of drug from the drug loaded hydrogels in distilled water, pH 2.2 buffer and pH 7.4 buffer, respectively. The present study shows that the release of drug from the hydrogels occurred through Non-Fickian diffusion mechanism.