Preparation and Characterization of Poly-(methyl ethyl cyanoacrylate) Particles Containing 5-Aminosalicylic acid

Poly-(alkylcyanoacrylate) ester particles have been used for the preparation of differentformulations ranging from ophthalmic delivery systems to cancer chemotherapy carriers inclinic. the aim of this study was to prepare and characterize poly-(methyl ethyl cyanoacrylate)(pmeca) particles containing 5-aminosajicylic acid (5-asa). pmeca particles were preparedusing the inverse emulsification polymerization technique. the effects of various formulationparameters such as dispersed phase volume, polymer to drug weight ratio, and surfactantconcentration on loading efficiency and size of the prepared particles were investigated.the amount of drug was determined by uy spectrophotometery at 331 nm. morphologicalcharacteristics of particles and particle size analysis were studied by scanning electronmicroscopy (sem) and laser light scattering techniques, respectively. the results showedthat there was no linear relationship between the dispersed phase volume (dpy) and loadingefficiency of 5-asa in the range of 20-50%. increasing polymer/drug weight ratio in therange of i- 15, enhanced the loading efficiency from 11.4 to 78.2% in a linear mode (r=0.987).increasing the surfactant concentration in the range of 1-3% did not increase the loadingefficiency of the prepared particles, and increasing the concentration to 5% even decreased theloading efficiency of particles. laser light scattering and sem evaluations showed that in allprepared formulations, particles were in a mixture of micro and nanospheres and micro andnanocapsules and 50 percent of particles had mean sizes in the range of 6.4-10.1 micrometer.although our results showed significant differences in the mean particle size between some ofthe prepared formulations, this variation was not practically important. it was concluded thatby using proper conditions, it is possible to use pmeca as a polymeric matrix for loading of5-asa and the other hydrophilic drugs