Particle size distribution of alginate-pectin microspheres: Effect of composition and methods of production

Microspheres are used in biomedical and pharmaceutical fields to encapsulate drugs. Drug delivery through encapsulated microspheres gives controlled release as well as long shelf life for the drugs. Drug release kinetics depends on particle size distribution of the microspheres. It is necessary to find the microsphere particle size and distribution for the targeted delivery. Many parameters affect the microsphere size distribution, mainly composition of material and stabilizer used to prepare emulsion. In this research different ratio of alginatepectin (70:30; 75:25; 80:20) emulsions were prepared using rotary type hand mixer. Span 85 was used as a stabilizer. Among the different ratios 75:25 was selected to prepare microsphere in four different methods viz., sonication, magnetic stirring, spraying and using rotary type hand mixer. Calcium carbonate (5%) and 1.0M calcium chloride were used for gelation during microsphere preparation. Particle size was measured using Mastersizer 2000 (Malvern Instruments Ltd., UK). Modeling of the particle size distribution was done through Rosin-Rammler- (RR) and Log-Probability (LP) models. RR model was found to fit well with the experimental data for all the composition and methods of microsphere preparation.