Evaluation of Ipomoea batata starch as a pharmaceutical excipient

Abstract

Various artificial polymers are available in market as supporting entities for designing of pharmaceutical formulations, but these artificial polymers have been posing many disadvantages viz., being expensive, reporting toxic, causing ecological pollution through synthesis, non-renewable causes, various side effects, and above all poor patient acquiescence. Because of these distinguished drawbacks contemporary research is much towards exploitation of natural polymers such as natural gums, mucilages and starch derivatives as alternatives to semi synthetic and synthetic excipients. Excipients from natural origin include many advantages like: cost effective, abundant existence from natural origin, free from side effects, biocompatible, bio-acceptable, involving ecofriendly processing, local availability etc. In the current research study one among them i.e, Ipomoea batata Starch, which is exploited in all of its physico-chemical properties towards its use in designing various acceptable and efficacious pharmaceutical dosage forms. Through the current study, the tubers of Ipomoea batata is found to contain high proportion of starch and also literature survey revealed that Ipomoea batata starch possesses remarkable binding, thickening and disintegrating nature that supports in formulation of various conventional tablet formulations. This study resulted in the modification of Ipomoea batata starch into various forms, which had found to have varied excipient properties like super disintegrant action, potential carrier in solid dispersion, rate retarding polymer for controlled released formulation and also stable emulsifying, suspending and gelling activities. newline