Oil-entrapped sterculia gum–alginate buoyant systems of aceclofenac: Development and in vitro evaluation

[Display omitted] ► Buoyant beads of aceclofenac were prepared by ionotropic emulsion-gelation. ► Sodium alginate, sterculia gum, and liquid paraffin were used as excipients. ► Effect of variables on bead properties was optimized by 32 factorial design. ► Optimized beads showed high drug entrapment and sustained in vitro drug release. ► These beads showed well buoyancy over 7h in simulated gastric fluid (pH 1.2). The current investigation deals with the development and optimization of oil-entrapped sterculia gum–alginate buoyant beads containing aceclofenac by ionotropic emulsion–gelation technique using 32 factorial design. The effect of polymer to drug ratio and sodium alginate to sterculia gum ratio on the drug entrapment efficiency (%), and cumulative drug release after 7h (%) was optimized. The optimized oil-entrapped sterculia gum–alginate buoyant beads containing aceclofenac (F-O) showed drug entrapment efficiency of 90.92±2.34%, cumulative drug release of 41.65±3.97% after 7h in simulated gastric fluid (pH 1.2), and well buoyancy over 8h in simulated gastric fluid (pH 1.2) with 5.20min buoyant lag-time. The in vitro drug release from these buoyant beads followed Korsmeyer–Peppas model (R2=0.9866–0.9995) with anomalous (non-Fickian) diffusion drug release mechanism. These new sterculia gum–alginate buoyant beads containing aceclofenac were also characterized using SEM, FTIR, and P-XRD analysis.