Characterization and evaluation of the fruit mucilage of Cordia africana as tablet binder in paracetamol tablet formulation: optimization study

Several studies have revealed that the fruit mucilage of different species of Cordia is found to be an excellent binder in tablet manufacturing. However, the binding ability of the mucilage of Cordia Africana (CM) is not yet established. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the tablet-binding ability of the CM using paracetamol as a model drug. The fruit of Cordia Africana was extracted with the maceration technique and characterized for different properties, such as its compatibility with the model drug (paracetamol) using the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and its crystallinity nature with X-ray Diffractometer (XRD). Granules were prepared using the wet granulation method and compressed into tablets. The prepared tablets were evaluated for their hardness, disintegration time, friability, and drug release profile. The effect of these independent variables was further studied and optimized using the central composite design (CCD). The yield of extracted CM powder was 29%. The FTIR study revealed that the CM is compatible with the model drug. The loss in drying and moisture sorption studies was 6 ± 0.02% and 1.3-6.7%, respectively. The granules exhibited good flowability (angle of repose < 30 °) and compressibility properties with Carr's and Hausner ratios of < 10 and < 1.11, respectively. All the prepared tablets have shown a hardness value of less than 100 N and a disintegration time in the range of 0.55 to 10.27 min. The ANOVA analysis for model adequacy testing confirmed the adequacy of the optimization model. Accordingly, the model provided an optimum formulation at 5.32% of CM concentration, 5% of disintegrant (Starch), and 76.71 N of compression force (CF). Under this condition, the software predicted 83.3% drug release at 30 min and 0.63 of friability. The validity of this optimum formulation was confirmed experimentally. The CM can be used as an alternative binder for tablets, and the optimization model was proven to be effective in identifying the optimum concentration of the CM along with CF and ST.