Characterization of Hydration Behaviour and Modeling of Film Formulation

Hydration behavior of hydrogel-based polymeric film possesses great importance in mucosal drug delivery. Modified Lag phase sigmoid model was used for the investigation of hydration of the film. Kaolin incorporated HPMC K100LVCR (HL) and K100M (HH) films containing dexamethasone as a model drug have been prepared for studying swelling kinetics. Swelling of HL and HH films was decreased with the gradual increase of kaolin content and HH of higher viscosity has shown higher value than HL matrix. Kaolin also inhibited the film erosion process. Mathematically modified lag phase sigmoid model demonstrated similarity of the predicted swelling content with the observed value. High R2 and small RMSE value confirmed the successful fitting of the modified lag phase sigmoid model to the experimental data of swelling content. τ value similar to the observed one was obtained. This modified model could be reliable enough for estimating hydration process in food grains, food packaging films etc.