FORMULATION DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF FAST DISSOLVING TABLETS OF CETIRIZINE HYDROCHLORIDE

Recent developments in fast dissolving tablets have brought convenience in dosing to pediatric and elderly patients who have trouble in swallowing tablets. Cetirizine HCl is a potent second-generation histamine H1 antagonist that is effective in the treatment of allergic rhinitis, chronic urticaria and pollen-induced asthma. In the present study an attempt has been made to prepare fast dissolving tablets of cetirizine HCl in the oral cavity with enhanced dissolution rate. The concept of formulating fast dissolving tablets containing cetirizine HCl offers a suitable and practical approach in serving desired objective of faster disintegration and dissolution characteristics with increased bioavailability. Fast dissolving tablets of cetirizine HCl were prepared by direct compression methods and blend was evaluated for the pre-compression parameters such as bulk density, compressibility, angle of repose etc. The tablets were prepared by using croscarmellose sodium and sodium starch glycolate as superdisintegrants in different concentration along with magnesium stearate microcrystalline cellulose and talc. Total six formulations were prepared and evaluated for hardness, friability, weight variation, content uniformity, wetting time, water absorption ratio, disintegration time and invitro drug release. In-vitro dissolution studies are performed by using phosphate buffer pH 6.8 at 75 rpm by paddle method. Overall, the formulation F5 containing of croscarmellose sodium was found to be promising and has shown a disintegration time 45±2sec. Thus results conclusively demonstrated successful masking of taste and fastest disintegration of the formulated tablets in oral cavity.

Keywords: Cetirizine HCl, Fast dissolving tablets, Direct compression, Superdisintegrants, Pre-compression