Abstract

This study was designed for concealing the bitter taste of an anti-malarial drug, artemether, by using various coating substances. Four granular formulations (formulations A, B, C and D) of artemether were prepared using different excipients and then were coated using methocil™ E5 and opadry^® enteric solutions in a simple coating pan. In the initial 2 min, the cumulative percentage amount of drug release in phosphate buffer at pH 6.8 from pure artemether and formulation A, B, C and D was 59.4 ± 4.2, 55.7 ± 3.5, 48.2 ± 3.8, 43.4 ± 4.1 and 30.8 ± 3.7, respectively. Formulation D exhibited minimum bitterness as its taste masking efficacy (44.73 ± 4.98) was significantly (P < 0.05) greater than other formulations. It can be concluded from results that granules of formulation D prepared by sodium metabisulphite and methyl paraben sodium and coated by opadry^® enteric had maximally reduced the bitterness of artemether with suitable dissolution behavior.

Key words: Artemether, dry suspension, in vitro test, taste analysis.