Evaluation of Two Techniques for the Production of Alginate-Based Microcapsules for Oral Delivery of Ibuprofen

A widely used approach for the microencapsulation of drugs especially for controlled drug delivery is emulsion polymerization. The purpose of this study was to comparatively evaluate chitosan-alginate microcapsules for oral delivery of ibuprofen using two techniques. Alginate-based microcapsules were prepared using the emulsion/internal gelation and electrostatic droplet generator/counter-ion coacervation methods. The effect of production parameters on the size of the microcapsules and in vitro ibuprofen release at pH 1.2 and 7.4 was determined. For emulsion/internal gelation method, the results showed that increase in stirring rate, volume of dispersion medium and viscosity of the coating materials did not significantly (p > 0.05) affect the size of the microcapsules. Microcapsules produced by the electrostatic droplets generator method had a narrower size distribution compared to the emulsion method. Drug release at pH 7.4 was considerably more than at pH 1.2, especially for uncoated microcapsules, microcapsules coated with high-viscosity (undigested) chitosan, and microcapsules prepared by the emulsion method. The encapsulation efficiencies of the two methods were similar as over 90% of ibuprofen was entrapped in each case. The two microencapsulation techniques can be applied in the microencapsulation of ibuprofen for oral delivery.