Research on the development of bioadhesive vaginal tablets containing 5-fluorouracil

Biomucoadhesive vaginal tablets are modern formulations used in current therapy to achieve controlled release of the active substance at the application site by maintaining the pharmaceutical preparation at that level. This can be achieved by using mucoadhesive substances with different mechanical and physical-chemical properties. Two cellulose derivatives of different viscosity, Metolose 90 SH 4000 and Metolose 90 SH 100000, and two types of polyacrylates with different cross linking degrees, Carbopol 71, low degree of cross linking, and Carbopol 974, high degree of cross linking were used. In a previous study twelve original formulations of bioadhesive vaginal tablets containing 100 mg 5-fluorouracil (5-FU)/tablet (F1-F12) were formulated, prepared and analyzed. The pharmacotechnical characterization of the bioadhesive vaginal tablets containing 5-FU was performed by determining their specific quality characteristics. For the optimization of formulations, the influence of formulation factors on some quality characteristics (mechanical strength, friability, disintegration time) which may be influenced by the nature and amount of auxiliary substances used was studied by SPSS statistical software and statistical analysis ANOVA tests. The results are in favor of formulations F1, F2 containing 20-30% Carbopol 71 and of 37-47% Microcelac.