The Potential of Allanblackia floribunda Butter as a Suppository Base

Abstract

The rectal route for drug administration is becoming attractive to drug formulators because there are no hepatic first-pass effects, it decreases gastrointestinal side effects, and it avoids undesirable food effects on drug absorption. Suppositories are recognized as an alternative to the oral dosage forms in situations such as when the patient is comatose, unable to swallow, nauseous, or vomiting. Effective drug delivery with appropriate pharmaceutical excipients is critical to producing clinically valuable preparations. The high cost of available excipients and other disadvantages have led to exploring potential excipients from natural sources. Allanblackia floribunda butter, a naturally occurring lipid, is used for medicinal, culinary, and cosmetic purposes. The butter was used as a base to formulate Paracetamol and Diclofenac suppositories. Quality control tests were conducted on the formulated suppositories, such as the Weight variation, hardness, disintegration time, and content uniformity. The suppositories passed all the quality control tests as the parameters assessed were within the acceptable range. The melting point ranges for all the suppositories were found to be satisfactory. The cumulative drug release (%) of the suppositories at 45 minutes was 90.19±0.00 (Hot water extract), 93.75±0.00 (Cold press extract), and 98.16±0.00 (Hexane extract) for Paracetamol suppositories. Diclofenac sodium suppositories had a cumulative percentage release of 81.60±0.00 (Hot water Extract), 95.33±0.00 (Cold press extract), and 99.20±0.00 (Hexane Extract). However, the release profiles of the drugs from the bases were similar (f2 > 50). The suppository formulation was successful, and the quality control tests conformed to Pharmacopoeia standards.

Keywords

• allanblackia floribunda butter
• suppositories
• extracts