FORMULATION AND EVALUATION OF MOUTH DISSOLVING TABLETS OF RIZATRIPTAN BENZOATE

Many patients express difficulty in swallowing tablets and hard gelatin capsules, which results in high incidence of non-compliance and ineffective therapy. Recent advances in Novel Drug Delivery Systems (NDDS) aim to enhance safety and efficacy of drug molecule by formulating a convenient dosage form for administration and to achieve better patient compliance. One such approach is fast disintegrating/ dispersing tablet formulation. In the present work, fast disintegrating tablets of Rizatriptan benzoate were designed and optimized with a view to enhance patient compliance by direct compression method. In the direct compression method, crospovidone (2-10% w/w) was used as super-disintegrant along with microcrystalline cellulose (5-20%w/w) as disintegrant and directly compressible mannitol to enhance mouth feel. Estimation of rizatriptan benzoate in the prepared tablet formulations was carried out by extracting the drug with water and measuring the absorbance at 234nm. The prepared formulations were further evaluated for hardness, friability, drug content uniformity, wetting time, water absorption ratio and in vitro dispersion time. Based on in vitro dispersion time (approximately 8-14 s), one promising formulations was tested for in vitro drug release pattern (in pH 6.8 phosphate buffer) and drug excipient interaction (IR spectroscopy). Among all the formulations, promising formulation, the formulation prepared by direct compression method (containing 2% w/w crospovidone and 15% w/w Microcrystalline cellulose) emerged as the overall best formulation.