Optimization of ranitidine hydrochloride based on stability performance in directly compressible immediate and sustained release formulations.

Ranitidine hydrochloride (RTD), a moisture-sensitive drug, has issues of stability during shelf life especially when formulated through wet granulation method. In current study, RTD was blended with non-hygroscopic excipient like ethyl cellulose and compressed using direct compression method. The physical and physicochemical characteristics were evaluated including hardness, thickness, diameter, friability, weight variation, disintegration, dissolution and accelerated stability study to optimize findings. Subsequently, the optimized formulation was characterized for Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) analysis and in vitro drug release kinetics. The physical characterization was unaffected by polymer variation while the friability and weight variation were within the USP limits. In vitro drug release depicted that the release rate was sustained by increasing the amount of ethyl cellulose, with a 10% increase of ethyl cellulose 99.09% drug was released. FTIR analysis exhibited no interaction among the ingredients of the optimized formulation (E2). The optimized formulation followed Hixson-Crowell release kinetics. Formulation A5 displayed immediate release characters as plain uncoated formulation. Accelerated studies showed no significant change in the drug content. The RTD was successfully sustained to be released up to 6 h and accelerated stability showed that the optimized formulation (E2) containing 4% starch 1500 and 10% of ethyl cellulose, respectively, was stable up to 6 months.

Validation of a rapid and economical RP-HPLC method for simultaneous determination of metformin hydrochloride and sitagliptin phosphate monohydrate: Greenness evaluation using AGREE score.

Reported high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) methods for estimating metformin hydrochloride (MET) and sitagliptin phosphate monohydrate (SIT) are either laborious or contain higher proportions of organic solvents in mobile phase, thus presenting exorbitant procedures. So, a rapid, significantly more economical and eco-friendly HPLC method for synchronized analysis of both drugs was aimed to develop and validate in current study. Analytical evaluation was executed on Shimadzou⌖ C18 column (250mm × 4.6mm, 5µm) using acidified water and methanol 60:40 (v/v) as mobile phase at a flow of 1mL/min; while peaks were detected at 260nm at 25°C. Resultant values of accuracy, precision, linearity, limit of detection (LOD), limit of quantification (LOQ), robustness and specificity depicted that the method was validated in accordance with the ICH Guidelines. The approximate retention time for MET and SIT were 1.96 and 3.70 min, correspondingly. The greenness score of the developed method was evaluated using AGREE software and was found better (0.81) as compared with the methods reported (<0.8). Conclusively, the developed method was time saving, economical, rapid, robust, rugged, precise, accurate and found to be applicable for simultaneous determination of MET and SIT in commercial tablets.

Knowledge of Ebola virus disease among a university population: A cross-sectional study.

This cross-sectional study aimed to evaluate the knowledge of a Pakistani university population (students and employees) regarding Ebola virus disease. A total of 2,200 individuals were approached and 1,647 were enrolled in the study. We observed that the vast majority of study participants (91.8%) had inadequate knowledge of Ebola virus disease (knowledge score ≤ 12). Our findings highlight the need to increase the knowledge of Ebola virus disease by using multidimensional approach involving awareness campaigns, print, electronic, and social media.