Preparation and in vitro Evaluation of Acyclovir Suspension

Abstract

The suspension is one of the successful oral liquid dosage forms. It has manyadvantages such as increase the bioavailability of poorly water soluble drugs.Acyclovir is poorly water soluble drug. It is antiviral agent, which is commonlyindicated for treatment of wide variety of viral infections; e.g., herpes simplex,varicella zoster in children and adults.The aim of this study, was preparation of acyclovir suspension dosage form usingsingle ionic type surfactant; sodium stearate was used as suspending and flocculatingagent. The flocculating ability of sodium stearate was assessed via measuring thesedimentation volume. Acacia also was added as thickening agent and its ability toimpart a more stable successful suspension was evaluated. In this work, thesedimentation volume, content uniformity and viscosity were studied for severalformulas containing different ranges of sodium stearate (from 0.5% to 3) incombination with or without acacia at different concentrations (1% to 2%). Sodiumstearate was found to be able to give a flocculated system at concentrations higherthan 1%. The sedimentation volume (F) was found to be equals to (F= 1), which is anideal flocculated system; however, the resultant dispersion is thick and very hard to behandled. Also the addition of acacia did not enhance the stability of the dispersedsystem.