Effects of Drying Methods on the Release Kinetics of Vitamin B 12 in Calcium Alginate Beads

Abstract The aim of this article was to investigate the morphology, swelling properties, and respective drug release kinetics of vitamin B12–loaded calcium alginate beads prepared by oven (air), vacuum, and freeze drying. The initial particle size was 1 mm. The mean bead sizes of dried Ca-alginate beads were 0.7, 0.8, and 0.9 mm for oven-, vacuum-, and freeze-dried beads, respectively. The surface morphology of the dried beads was affected by the different drying methods applied. Oven- and vacuum-dried beads shrank in size, and more cracks appeared on the surface of oven-dried beads. Freeze-dried beads almost retained the same size prior to drying; however, the surface was rougher and highly porous. The swelling profiles were also affected by the drying methods, whereby freeze-dried beads showed the fastest solvent uptake at the start of the experiment. The release data of the dried Ca-alginate beads were treated with first-order, Higuchi, Korsmeyer, and Peppas kinetic models. The data for oven and vacuum seemed to follow a combination of diffusion and swelling controlled release, whereas data from freeze-dried beads seemed to follow more diffusion-dominated controlled release. Keywords: Calcium alginateDrug releaseFreeze dryingKineticsOven dryingVacuum dryingWater-soluble drug ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The first author acknowledges Monash Research Graduate School (MRGS) and the Australian government for providing the Australian Postgraduate Award (APA) scholarship.