New sol-gel derived aluminum oxide-ibuprofen nanocomposite as a controlled releasing medication

Objective(s): In a new approach, following the development in metal oxide chemistry, the ibuprofen as low water soluble nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug diffused into synthetic sol-gel derived nano porous g-alumina by an impregnation method in order to increase the solubility and control the drug release in physiological environment. Methods: Sol-gel method was utilized for the fabrication of alumina by controlled hydrolysis of an aluminum alkoxide source. This vehicle favors high surface area, pore diameter and pore volume as well as hydroxyl rich surface which is needed for the drug formulation. Two different percent of the medication were loaded on the synthetic g-alumina. The samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD),BET (Brunauer, Emmett and Teller), FT-IR and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Results: The results showed that the drug molecules were well-distributed into the pores. 25 and 50% w/w of ibuprofen were prepared for drug release test which was studied by UV-Vis techniques. The release kinetic was obtained in simulated body fluid (SBF), simulated intestinal fluid (SIF) and simulated gastric fluid (SGF). The solubility of the drug reached to 90 and 84% for 25% (γ-Al-IBU25) and 50% (γ-Al-IBU50) drug loaded samples after 4 h of loading time, respectively. These results are comparable to reported commercial alumina with low amount of 25% release. The percent of the drug release is as follow for three environments: SBF > SIF > SGF. Conclusions: It could be concluded that the new formulation led to enhancement solubility and controlled release of ibuprofen in the mentioned media.