Communications Evaluation of Egg Albumin as a Filler for Prolonged Release Direct Compressed Tablets

Direct compressed tablets for drugs of different physico-chemical properties were prepared using egg albumin as tablet filler. The prepared tablets at different drug:egg albumin ratios as well as the powder blends used for the preparation of the tablets were evaluated. The drug dissolutions from the egg albumin tablets were slow and different release profiles were obtained depending on the type of the drug. The release kinetics from the albumin matrix were tested for different models and were found to be anomalous resembling release of drugs from swellable type of matrices. In order to elucidate the release mechanism, the interaction of drugs with egg albumin was examined by thermal analysis. In most cases release retardation was increased with the increase of egg albumin matrix density. In case of meclizine-HCl the release was not depending on the egg albumin matrix density and it was believed that the rate determining step for its release is drug solubility and/or dissociation of the drug-egg albumin complex.