Vol. 6, Issue 1, Part A (2024)

Medicines are beyond reach for the majority of the developing countries' population due to pharmaceutical firms' reliance on expensive raw ingredients despite abundant natural resources. This study provides a natural source of polymer that delays drug release as alternative to synthetic ones used in most tablet preparations. Mucilage from the stems of Basella rubra, locally known as Alugbati was employed as polymer in Metformin HCl sustained matrix tablets. Wet granulation was used to develop the tablets incorporating three increasing concentrations of mucilage. The formulated tablets were subjected to USP standards and only those that conform advanced to polymer swelling behavior and in vitro drug release. The matrix tablets passed all USP standards. The mucilage caused an abrupt increase in swelling and was able to sustain drug release for Formulations 1, 2 and 3. Based on one way ANOVA and Similarity Factor Test (f2), Formulation 3 was comparable to the commercially available Metformin HCl tablets with p>0.05 and f2 of 49.9% indicating no significant difference in release profiles. It was found that higher mucilage concentration showed an increased potential in sustaining drug release.