Layered bionanocomposites as carrier for procainamide.

The study deals with the intercalation of procainamide hydrochloride (PA), an antiarrythmia drug in montmorillonite (MMT), as a new drug delivery device. Optimum intercalation of PA molecules within the interlayer space of MMT was achieved by means of different reaction conditions. Intercalation of PA in the MMT galleries was conformed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectra (FT-IR), and thermal analysis (DSC). In order to retard the quantity of drug release in the gastric environment, the prepared PA-MMT composite was compounded with alginate (AL), and further coated with chitosan (CS). The surface morphology of the PA-MMT-AL and PA-MMT-AL-CS nanocomposites beads was analyzed by scanning electron microscope (SEM). The in vitro release experiments revealed that AL and CS were able to retard the drug release in gastric environments, and release the drug in the intestinal environments with a controlled manner. The release profiles of PA from composites were best fitted in Higuchi kinetic model, and Korsmeyer-Peppas model suggested diffusion controlled release mechanism.