Investigations on mefenamic acid sustained release tablets with water-insoluble gel

Mefenamic acid (MA) has analgesic, anti-inflammatory and antipyretic properties. Available conventional dosage forms are capsules and film-coated tablets. No commercial sustained release preparation of MA exists in the market. The usual oral dose is 250 or 500 mg and reported half-life is 2 h. Sodium alginate (NaAL) is the sodium salt of alginic acid, a natural polysaccharide extracted from marine brown algae. It has the ability to form a water-insoluble gel with a bivalent metal ions as calcium. Therefore, NaAL has been studied for preparing sustained release formulations in pharmaceutical technology. In this study, tablet formulations containing different ratios of NaAL and calcium gluconate (CaGL) were prepared by direct compression method. In vitro release studies were carried out using USP 23 basket method and release data were kinetically evaluated. According to release studies, it can be emphasized that NaAL and CaGL can be used for design of sustained release preparation of MA.