Evaluation of oleo-gum resin as directly compressible tablet excipient and release retardant

The present study was designed to study drug release retardant property of myrrh oleo-gum resin from tablets prepared by direct compression method (without binding agent). The tablets were evaluated for various physical tests viz. hardness, friability, tensile strength and drug content. Accelerated stability testing was carried out according to ICH guidelines. Batch F-VII showed 041% friability, 6 kg/cm2 hardness and 0.961 MN/m2 tensile strength. In vitro dissolution studies were performed and different empirical models were applied to drug release data for evaluating the drug release mechanisms and kinetics. A criterion for selecting the most appropriate model was based on linearity (coefficient of correlation). The in vitro release data fit well to the Hixson Crowell model (r2 value ranged from 0.9771 to 0.9945) indicating the drug release mechanism to be surface erosion, effected through water diffusion, polymer hydration, disentanglement and dissolution. In conclusion, myrrh-oleo-gum resin was found to be a suitable directly compressible tablet excipients having release modifying property.