Mechanical and drug-release properties of atenolol-Carbomer hydrophilic matrix tablets

Abstract The potential of three varieties of Carbomer (934,940 and 941) as excipients for hydrophilic matrix tablets containing the hydrosoluble drug atenolol was assessed. The technological variables, type and proportion of polymer and maximum force applied over the compression cycle, were varied according to a 2 × 2 factorial experimental design to investigate their influence on the mechanical and drug release properties of the tablets, identifying those that were significant with the corresponding ANOVA. The influence of each significant variable was quantified by way of multiple stepwise sequential linear regression, which gave, on the whole, acceptable fits. Similar mechanical and release properties were observed for all the varieties of Carbomer. In all cases, drug release profiles fitted Higuchi's square root kinetics and showed strong dependence on the proportion of polymer; the compression force and the microporous structure were not important in this respect.