Effects of nano zinc oxide and nano chitosan on the taste masking paracetamol granules

Abstract

Objective

The purpose of this study is to investigate the taste masking of Paracetamol granules in the range of 250–850 µm, coated by two nanocomposites prepared from Eudragit^® E100, nanozinc oxide, and nanochitosan, respectively, from 1 to 5% by the weight of the granules.

Methods

In this study, Paracetamol granules were coated in several formulas with two different types of nanocomposites (polymeric and mineral) on two sizes of granules to reduce bitter taste and with the FBC method and pH-sensitive polymers (Eudragit^® E100).

Results

The effect of nanoparticles (Nano zinc oxide and Nanochitosan) on taste-masking Paracetamol was studied with dissolution-coated granules in vitro by simulating in the oral (pH 6.8) range. Based on the results of the studies, the rate of drug release was confirmed by the taste test, and the formulated granule with 5% nano-chitosan (F14) had the best bitter taste mask function of all samples. These results were also confirmed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis, which showed a smoother and more stable surface than the samples obtained from other formulations.

Conclusion

In the comparison of the release of two types of nanocomposites in the dissolution test, it was shown that the type B granules of Paracetamol’s 5% nano-chitosan-coated granule (F14) were released 99% less than Paracetamol’s 5% nano-ZnO-coated granule (F11). and Paracetamol’s 1% nano-chitosan-coated granule (F12) was released 91% less than Paracetamol’s 1% nano-ZnO-coated granule (F9). The results showed that nano-chitosan-coated granules have better coverage of bitter taste instead of nano-ZnO.

Keywords:

• Paracetamol taste masking
• Eudragit E100
• nano chitosan
• nano ZnO
• FBC (Wurster)

Ethical approval

The study protocol was approved by the ethics committee of Pharmaceutical Laboratory Kharazmi Co. (Tehran, Iran) and conducted in accordance with the principles of the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards and with the Ethical Guidelines for Medical and Health Research Involving Human Subjects issued by the Ministry of Health and Medical Education, Iran.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data Availability Statement

The datasets generated during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the University of Tehran.