Synthesis and identification of gelatin-polyvinyl alcohol hydrogel for use in the release of fluvoxamine maleate drug

Hydrogels are hydrophilic polymer networks which may absorb from 10–20% up to thousands of times their dry weight in water. Hydrogels may be chemically stable or they may degrade and eventually disintegrate and dissolve. They are called ‘reversible’, or ‘physical’ gels when the networks are held together by molecular entanglements, and/or secondary forces including ionic, H-bonding or hydrophobic forces.1,2 The use of PVA based hydrogels as biomaterials has recently gained great importance in view of the low toxicity, non-carcinogenic, and high biocompatibility by many of them.3 In this work gelatin-polyvinylalcohol cross-linked hydrogel was prepared using K2S2O8 in aqueous media. Then, loading and release of fluvoxamine maleate drug was investigated using gelatin-polyvinylalcohol hydrogel. The effects of temperature and pH on the loading and release of fluvoxamine maleate drug in gelatin-polyvinylalcohol hydrogel were studied. The results showed that the highest loading of the drug was achieved at room temperature after 8 hours. Also, the highest drug release was observed after 6 hours at room temperature in pH = 7.

Keywords:

Fluvoxamine maleate , Gelatin , Polyvinylalcohol , Hydrogel , Drug release