Emerging Liquisolid Compact Technology for Solubility Enhancement of BCS Class-II Drug

Diazepam possesses potent anti-epileptic, anti-anxiety activity and also indicated for the treatment of insomnia. It is very slightly soluble in water and shows poor dissolution. Presently, liquisolid compact technique is found to be used extensively as one of the successful tool to enhance the solubility and dissolution of various poorly soluble drugs. The principle focus of this study is to formulate Liquisolid compacts of Diazepam to enhance its dissolution rate. Here, liquisolid compacts are fabricated using different non-volatile solvents and converting them into acceptably flowing and compressible powders for efficient compact tablet production. The solubility studies are carried by dispersing the drug in various dissolution enhancing agents (nonvolatile solvents) such as Polyethylene glycol 400 (PEG-400), Polyethylene glycol 600 (PEG-600), Propylene glycol, Tween 80, Span 80 and Glycerol. The drug solubility is comparatively high in PEG-600, which is selected as suitable vehicle for the formulation and its further study. The formulations are made by using different ratios of Drug and PEG-600, then by the addition of diluents like manitol, microcrystalline cellulose (Avicel pH-101) and lactose as carrier materials and other excipients to optimize the direct compression process. The prepared blends are subjected to the pre-formulation studies and the compressed liquisolid compacts are evaluated for the physical parameters such as uniformity of weight, hardness, diameter, thickness, friability, disintegrention, content uniformity and in-vitro dissolution. The FTIR and DSC analysis are performed to confirm the compatibility and stability of the drug with the excipients.