Drug Carrier Preparation

1.5.1.4 Method to prepare drug carrier

There were various methods for the preparation of drug carrier depending on their nature. The common methods to prepare drug carrier were thin film hydration, reverse phase evaporation (REV), solvent (ether or ethanol) injection, and detergent analysis.

a) Thin film hydration

Thin film hydration method was one of the simplest way to prepare drug carrier. Basically, this method involved making thin film around the round bottom flask. The active ingredient and surfactant were dissolved in organic solvent such as chloroform to get clear and homogenous mixture. The organic solvent was removed by rotary evaporation and forming dry thin film of dissolved components. The thin film was thoroughly

The ether injection technique was totally different from ethanol injection since ether was immiscible with aqueous solvent. Moreover, for the ether injection, ether was slowly injected while for the ethanol injection, ethanol was rapidly injected to an excess of buffer (Dua, Rana, & Bhandari, 2012). The advantage of ether injection compared to ethanol injection was that it can produce liposomes with high proportion of large unilamellar vesicles (LUV) and thus can serve high encapsulation efficiency (A. Laouini et al.,

The routes of administration can be generally classified according to the location of action was. Each route has their own specific purpose, advantages and disadvantages. Common examples of administration include intravenous, oral and transdermal administration.

a) Intravenous administration

Intravenous administration involved injection which was directly into the vein. For this administration, the size of the carrier must be small to serve a better therapeutic efficiency. The advantage of this administration was a drug can be delivered immediately into the blood stream and the effect of drugs can act rapidly compared to others route. However, the effect of drug given by this route can withstand for a shorter time. Hence, some active ingredients must be given continuous or the concentration of drugs can be increase to retain the effect of drug constant. The disadvantage for this administration included potential pain from the injection that leads to discomfort for the patient and can be difficult to administer for patient who was obese.

b) Oral