Preparation and Characterisation of Aspirin Loaded Ethylcellulose Nanoparticles by Solvent Evaporation Technique

Abstract

In the present study Aspirin loaded Ethyl cellulose nanoparticles were prepared by solvent evaporation method in the presence of Tween 20 as emulsifying agent and ethyl acetate as organic solvent. Three formulations were prepared by varying the concentration of polymer and the influence of process parameters such as solvent mixture, composition, concentration of the emulsifying agent and speed of stirring has been examined. All the three formulations are evaluated for drug content, product yield, particle size, entrapment efficiency and loading capacity. Entrapment efficiency and loading capacity were determined by ELTEK NP 400 Ultracentrifuge. The particle size and stability of the formulations were determined by HORIBA SZ-100 series particle size analyzer. Entrapment efficiencies were found to be 93.4%, 96.2% and 98.6% and the loading capacities were found to be 32.22%, 34.6% and 35.77% respectively for F1, F2 and F3 formulations. Comparative study was performed to determine the best method for the preparation of Aspirin loaded ethyl cellulose nanoparticles. From the evaluation studies it was observed that F2 formulation was giving promising results. The average particle size of the best formulation, F2 was found to be 444.5nm and zeta potential was found to be 41.5mV. Invitro drug release studies were performed to determine the sustain release nature of the formulation and drug release was sustained up to 12hrs for nanoparticles prepared by F2 formulation.