Preparation and characterization of floating gellan-chitosan polyelectrolyte complex beads
SUMMARY . The objective of the present investigation was to evaluate the potential of gellan gum- lowmolecular weight chitosan (GG-LMCH) polyelectrolyte complex (PEC) in the form of beads as prolongedrelease stomach specific floating drug delivery system. PEC beads were prepared in one step, without us-ing any chemical crosslinker, by dropwise addition of GG to a solution of LMCH in acetic acid. Buoyancyto the beads was attributed to the use of CaCO 3 . The % buoyancy, encapsulation efficiency and drug re-lease from PEC beads were compared with Ca ++ crosslinked GG floating beads prepared under same con-ditions using rifabutin as model drug. Our finding showed that the PEC beads remained buoyant for up to8 h and showed significantly better (p < 0.05) control over drug release compared to Ca ++ crosslinked GGbeads and, therefore, possess great potential for the stomach specific sustained delivery of drugs like ri-fabutin for the treatment of Helicobacter pylori infection. INTRODUCTION