Use of honey as a viscosity modifier in the formulation of cotrimoxazole suspension

Abstract

A study has been carried out on honey from comb of bee, Apis mellifera.  L. (Family, Apidae) as a viscosity modifier in conjunction with certain suspending agents in the formulation of cotrimoxazole suspension, to solve the problem of caking associated with most brands in the market. Six formulations including control, with or without suspending agents were compared to commercial brands by determining sedimentation volume, flow rate and rheological properties of all the preparations. The results show that two out of five commercial brands had satisfactory suspendability characteristics (p <0.05). The preparations with compound tragacanth and corn starch as suspending agents in conjunction with honey had a better  stability profile than the others. While in case of polyvinylpyrrolidone in addition to aforementioned suspending agents in sorbitol gave a reliable  suspension than the rest in this category. Generally it appears that formulations with sorbitol tend to have better suspendability indices than  that of honey. There is a strong statistical significance of the effect of dispersing medium and type of suspending agent on the stability of  suspensions p< 0.05. In addition, some of the test formulations compared favorably with commercial brands.

Keywords: honey, suspending agent, viscosity modifier, suspension, cotrimoxazole

Journal of Pharmaceutical and Allied Sciences, Vol. 7 No. 1 (2010)