Effect of hydrophilic substances on liberation of quinidine from starch - alginate sphere.

The effect of selected hydrophilic agents on the quinidine loading and its release from potato starch alginate spheres prepared by instilling viscous suspensions into a desolvation liquid (saturated calcium chloride: paraffin liquid: heptan 1:1:1 v/v/v) was studied. The loading of quinidine in spheres was 59.77%-46.30% and it depended on the presence of auxiliary hydrophillic agents such as polyethylene glycol 2000 (59.77%), polyoxyethylene - 20 - sorbitan monostearate (49.55%), glyceryl monostearate (49.02%), sorbitan monooleate (46.30%). The drug release from spheres was diffusion controlled in accordance with the Higuchi model. It was concluded that the release rate constants depended on the drug - carrier - hydrophilic agent composition and dissolution media.