Design and Evaluation of Sustained Release Bilayer Matrix Tablets of Propranolol Hydrochloride

The purpose of the present study is to achieve suitable propranolol HCl therapeutic profile by formulating bi-layer tablet consisting of an immediate and a sustained release layer using hydrophilic polymers such as HPMC K15M and PEO 1105 as release rate retarding agents. The effect of concentration of hydrophilic matrix polymers HPMC K15M, PEO 1105 on drug release profile was studied. The formulations have shown an initial burst release to initiate the effect of loading dose and then followed by sustained release for 12 h from the controlled release layer. FT-IR studies proved the compatability between the drug and polymers used in the study. The optimized formulation F9 (containing 40% of polymer HPMC K15M) gave propranolol release close to the theoretical CR release and was used to develop a bilayer matrix tablet of propranolol HCl. To determine the pattern of drug release, in-vitro release data was fitted into various release kinetic models like zero order, First order, Higuchi, and Peppas. The values indicated the non-fickian or anomalous transport with slow erosion of the polymer matrix followed by diffusion of drug resulted in linear drug release over a prolonged period of time.