Optimized Rapid Disintegrating Tablets produced through Central Composite Design

The work is aimed at producing fast disintegrating diclofenac potassium tablets to relieve pain and tenderness by applying a quality-by-design approach. Diclofenac potassium (DP) is of BCS class II and has issues of minimal oral bioavailability. This can be overcome by complexing DP with β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) and sodium starch glycolate (SSG). The attempt was to optimize DP tablets by applying central composite design (CCD). Nine different DP tablet formulations were created and assessed for physicochemical constraints, disintegration time and drug dissolution at the end of 30 min. The separate and mutual consequences of β-CD and SSG on the disintegration time of DP tablets are highly significant (P<0.01). The DP tablets made with β-CD in 150 mg disintegrated rapidly within 39±2 sec, and gave very rapid drug dissolution (96.35±2.36%) at the end of 30 min. These DP tablets (F-8) contain β-CD (150 mg) and SSG at 32.07 mg. The intermittent levels of β-CD and higher levels of SSG gave good dissolution of DP tablets. The polynomial equation linking the response, i.e. disintegration time in sec (Y₁) and the levels of β-CD (A) and SSG (B) based on the pragmatic results, is Y₁=45-3.14277A- 2.46599B-1.25AB+1.75A2-0.5B². In contrast, the DP release at the end of 30 min was expressed as Y₂ = 88.57 + 4.09333A + 3.27837B + 1.2525AB - 2A² + 0.8875B². The study concludes that SSG decreases the disintegration time with its concentration and β-CD concentration ingresses the drug release from the formulation.