Abstract:
Momordica charantia is a plant belonging to the Cucurbitaceae family, also
known as ‘Bitter gourd’, and ‘Usta’ in bangle. It contains alkaloids, insulin-like
polypeptides, and charantin, a combination of steroidal sapogenins. It is an effective
hypoglycemic agent. Momordica charantia is the most common plant used in alternate
medicines as an anti-diabetic agent. Metformin hydrochloride is derived from the class of
compounds from biguanide family, is an oral anti-hyperglycemic agent and is widely used
as an anti-diabetic drug in the treatment of non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus
(NIDDM). The action of Metformin is the alteration of the energy metabolism of the cell.
By blocking hepatic gluconeogenesis and glucagon's action, metformin has its
predominant effect of lowering blood glucose levels. Metformin has 50-60%
bioavailability and 1.5–4.5 hours for plasma half-life. Initial dose (800 mg) required in
orally once a day .Therefore, in the case of higher diabetes, higher doses are required,
there is a need to take this medicine 2–3 times in a day.
In the current study, the mucilage isolated from Momordica charantia fruits and
used in the tablets formulations as a binding agent. Different phytochemical test of
isolated mucilage showed that only carbohydrates is present in it. We have designed nine
batch tablets containing 500 mg of Metformin HCl with different compositions of
mucilage (1%, 2.5%, 5%, and 10%) for 800 mg of each tablet. The pre-compressional
and post-compressional pharmacological properties of different formulated granules and
tablets are evaluated. The granules showed good to excellent flow properties based on the
values of bulk density, tap density, carr’s index, hausner's ratio and angle of repose. The
weight of the tablets is close to the standard and shown good hardness properties. Among
all the formulations, the tablets batches of formulation 4 (F4) and formulation 8 (F8) have
good disintegration properties. From in vitro dissolution profile analysis, formulation
batch F 4 composed of 10% mucilage and F-8 composed of 10% mucilage along with 10
% starch, released 40.8% and 31.63% of the drug, respectively in 60 minutes. Drug
Release Kinetics Study showed that F4 showed the first-order release kinetics and F-8
showed the zero order and the Higuchi-s release kinetics. Hence, mucilage from
Momordica charantia can be used as excipients or tablet binders for low cost, available,
nontoxic in pharmaceutical tablet formulations.
