¹Department of Pharmaceutics and Industrial Pharmacy, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria
²Department of Chemistry, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria
³Department of Pharmaceutical Technology and Raw materials development, NIPRD, Abuja, Nigeria DOI : 10.29228/jrp.212 Nanoparticles have been used to overcome the limitations of oral drug delivery. This study was performed to examine the effects of modifying Digitaria exilis starch by cross-linking with multifunctional excipients: citric acid (CA) and sodium tripolyphosphate (STPP) to produce starch citrate and phosphate respectively at 20 % concentration. Thereafter, nanoparticles were synthesized via the nanoprecipitation method in the presence of Tween® 80, using ibuprofen as the model drug. The physicochemical properties of the modified starch were evaluated and the nanoparticles characterized by the encapsulation efficiciency, loading capacity, particle size, polydispersity index, scanning electron microscope (SEM), fourier transform infrared spectroscopy(FTIR), in vitro drug release and release kinetics. Results show that both cross-linkers improved the physicochemical properties of the starch, and produced particles in the nanometer range (616 nm and 933 nm) for citric acid and sodium tripolyphosphate nanoparticles respectively. Spherical and pitted particles corresponding to citric acid and sodium tripolyphosphate nanoparticles respectively were produced and they both showed a controlled release of ibuprofen from the formulation and both followed the Higuchi kinetic model with R2 values that exhibited a non-fickian diffusion pattern. This study revealed that the two excipients had different effects on the size and morphology of the nanoparticles and controlled the release of drug from the nanoparticles. Keywords : Starch; citric acid; sodium tripolyphosphate; nanoparticles; ibuprofen; multifunctional excipient