Author: OJHA KHYATI, SHENOY VRANDA, GUPTA SAUMYA, SUSEEM S.R. 2*
develop a controlled release hydrogel and to evaluate the efficiency of its drug delivery, synthetic polymer drug carriers will be safely metabolized, they will not impart any health benefit unlike the natural carriers such as starch and Aloe vera, release characteristics of ascorbic acid based hydrogel formulated using Aloe vera gel powder as a drug carrier and nutrient fortifying excipient, Metabolic equilibrium is maintained in homeostasis but an imbalance in it can lead to oxidative stress. Many medicaments in the form of antioxidants are presently available but they are not effective in the bioavailability because of their rapid systemic drug release patterns, systemic release patterns are not uniform as the drug delivery is not of controlled form, neither are they targeted in their action, recent approach in drug delivery systems is targeted drug delivery system where in many delivery forms are possible such as hydrogels, liposomes, resealed erythrocytes, niosomes, nanoparticles, microspheres and magnetic microspheres. Hydrogel is a recent approach wherein the shortcomings of conventional dosage forms have been circumvented with the introduction of controlled release dosage forms. They are capable of controlling the rate of drug delivery, leading to more sustained drug levels further it increases their systemic availability and thus leads to an increased therapeutic action, hydrogel is a three-dimensionally cross-linked hydrophilic polymer network that may absorb and retains large amount of water up to thousands of times its dry weight. The excellent biocompatibility property of hydrogels makes them most promising for applications such as tissue engineering and drug delivery, natural carrier such as Aloe vera gel powder having inherent tremendous medicinal values. It is noted that Aloe vera gel powder may enhance the intestinal absorption, effective delivery of poorly absorbable drugs, sustained release of pharmaceutical dosage forms, protection against degradation of vitamins and the enhancement of bioavailability of vitamin C. When taken internally along with the drug it may improve the digestive Musculo-skeletal and immune-related conditions apart from acting as an antioxidant, gelatin starch mediated hydrogel is a very novel approach as till date research have not been performed using gelatin and starch combined with Aloe vera gel powder and poly vinyl pyrrolidone. The cross-linker used poly vinyl pyrrolidone helps in cross-linking by providing framework to the hydrogel, Hydrogels of natural polymers, especially polysaccharides, have been used recently because of their unique advantages. Polysaccharides are, in general, non-toxic, biodegradable and abundant, moreover, natural polymers are biocompatible and enhance the drug release efficacy with reduced toxicity and improved patient compliance with in vivo degradation
