Development and optimization of formulation for treatment of copper deficiency in human organism

The aim of this study was to design and optimize a new tablet formulation for treatment of copper deficiency in human organism by using an experimental design. The new no-veneered tablets, prepared by a wet granulation technique, are containg active substance, a copper(II) complex with polysaccharide pullulan. The binder concentration, the disintegrant concentration and the resistance to crushing were used as independent variables in the formulation, while in vitro measured drug release characteristics of the tablets was response variable in a full factorial design 2(3) modeling. A cubic model for data fitted was used to examine the obtained results. They showed that the resistance to crushing has the most significant effect on copper(II) complex release from the formulation, while the disintegrant concentration has smaller influence on dissolution profile of copper(II) complex and the binder concentration had minor impact in this study. Lower value of resistance to crushing has influence on better dissolution profile. Furthermore, physical characteristics of the tablets were evaluated, viz., drug content, hardness, thickness, friability, disintegration time, mass variation, particle size and size distribution.