Volume 3

July-September 2011

A novel magnetic/pH sensitive chitosan/alginate hydrogel bead for controlled carbamazepine delivery

Hui-Juan Liu , Ping Li , Yu-Min Li

Abstract: 
A novel magnetic/pH sensitive chitosan/alginate (Chi/Alg) hydrogel bead was prepared by the L9 (34) orthogonal Test (four factors: The alginate concentration, chitosan concentration, CaCl2 concentration and weight ratio of Fe3O4 to polymer; three levels.) for controlled the delivery of carbamazepine (CBZ). Structure and surface morphology of the hydrogel were characterized by FTIR, SEM and magnetic property, respectively. In addition, the delivery behavior of carbamazepine from the hydrogel bead was studied. The CBZ cumulative release amount in pH 1.5 was smaller than in pH 6.8, the sequential release circumstance showed that the released amount of CBZ was 22.77% within 2 h and 91.63% after 24 h. The release of carbamazepine from the hydrogel bead at various pH values was analyzed by a semi-empirical equation, and it was found that the drug release mechanisms were either “anomalous transport” or “case-II transport”. The hydrogel bead possess magnetic property. The results clearly indicated that the hydrogel bead occupate magnetic/pH sensitivety, the magnetic/pH sensitive chitosan/alginate hydrogel bead may be a potential polymeric carrier for controlled the delivery of carbamazepine. This study may become an important experimental evidences of preparing an implantable magnetic nano-drug delivery system for treatment of the epilepsy.

Keywords: Carbamazepine, Hydrogel, Delivery Properties, Chitosan, Superparamagnetic.