ISOLATION OF MUCILAGE FROM THE FRUITS OF Momordica charantia AND INVESTIGATION OF ITS PHARMACOLOGICAL PROPERTIES

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.