Gum ghatti based hydrogel: Microwave synthesis, characterization, 5-Fluorouracil encapsulation and ‘in vitro’ drug release evaluation

[Display omitted] •Novel gum ghatti based hydrogel synthesized and studied as drug matrix.•Crosslink density and mesh size customized to program drug release rate.•‘In-vitro’ release attributes of 5-Fu studied at various physiological pHs.•Release rate accelerated with increasing mesh size and with pH.•Diffusion mechanism examined mathematically from kinetics study. The release attributes of anticancer therapeutic embedded in programmable gum ghatti hydrogel matrices has been evaluated. Hydrogel has been programmed simply by adjusting the product composition (monomer-acrylamide and crosslinker- N, N Methylenebisacrylamide (MBAm)) to control mesh size during copolymerization of gum through microwave based technique. The synthesized system has been characterized for physicochemical traits and ‘in-vitro’ drug release in various physiological pH conditions by USP standard method. The degree of crosslinking analysed through equilibrium swelling ratio (ESR) has been correlated with release kinetics. The release profiles yielded from the measurements of cumulative drug delivery showed that the system with lower ESR included slower release rate than that of the system with higher ESR, consequently generated higher t50 values. Additionally, the release rate rises with rise in pH milieu.