Evaluation of chitosan cross-linked with diglycidyl ether of butanediol-1,4 cryogel powder flow parameters for solid formulations development

Abstract

The development of targeted drug delivery systems increasingly utilizes natural polymers like chitosan, prized for their biocompatibility and versatility. Due to its structure, chitosan demonstrates enhanced manufacturabilityб resulting in vast array of drug delivery formats produced from its gel states. However, due to the lack of the information regarding the powdered forms of such compositions, in the present work we aimed to investigate the cryoprocessed drug delivery system produced from diglycidyl ether of butanediol-1,4 cross-linked chitosan, providing some insights into its practical manufacturability and applicability for solid formulations. The resulted powder was successfully characterized by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, elemental analysis, and scanning electron microscopy, which revealed its particle morphology that disables the cryogel flow thus requiring grinding. After fractionation, the powder was evaluated in regard to its applicability for solid forms. Good flow was observed for the cryogel within the size range of 0.2–0.5 mm and 0.5–1.0 mm with the angle of repose of 28.770±0.785 degrees and 30.149±0.399 degrees, Hausner Ratio of 1.248±0.003 and 1.155±0.015 and compressibility index 19.847±0.217 and 13.428±1.080, respectively, demonstrating the bulk and tapped density in the range of 0.573–0.593g/cm³ and 0.685–0.714 g/cm³. The results demonstrate that 0.2–0.5 mm and 0.5–1.0 mm fractions can be accepted for solid formulation development. Therefore, a more detailed investigation into the compressibility of the samples is required to optimize the solid dosage manufacturing parameters.