Formulation and Evaluation of Taste Masked Fast Dissolving/ Disintegrating Tablets of Hydroxyzine Hydrochloride

Hydroxyzine hydrochloride is histamine H1 antagonist, antipruritic and anxiolytic, sedative and hypnotic agent. It helps in suppression of histaminic edema, flare and pruritus, but it has poor patient compliance due to its bitterness. So its taste should be masked to formulate it in a palatable dosage form. So in the present work undertaken , an attempt was made to mask the taste of Hydroxyzine hydrochloride by complexation technique using Ion exchange resin (IER), Indion- 234 (Polyacrylic hydrogen with carboxylic functionality), and to formulate mouth dissolving tablet(MDT). The drug -IER complex (resinate) was evaluated for taste masking and characterized by DSC, IR. MDTs were formulated using resinate by direct compression method using solid drug: resin complex of Hydroxyzine HCl with indion-234 (equivalent to dose of drug, 1:3 ratios). Super disintegrating agents like Croscarmellose Sodium, sodium starch glycolate, crospovidone, L-HPC, Pregelatinised Starch and combination of sodium bicarbonate and citric acid (1.5:1). Formulations were coded as formulation F1, F2, F3, F4, F5 and F6 respectively. Tablets are evaluated for hardness, friability, Disintegration time, Thickness, weight variation and drug content and In vitro release study. The tablets disintegrated in vitro with in 10-50 sec. Cros povidone shows lesser disintegration time from all the formulation. The result showed that Hydroxyzine HCl was successfully taste masked and formulated into MDT as an alternative to conventional tablets.