Dual property of chitosan blended copolymer membranes: Antidiabetic drug release profile and antimicrobial assay.

Membranes were fabricated from a blend of synthetic copolymer (thiourea, phenylhydrazine and formaldehyde) and chitosan to study the metformin drug release profile and its kinetics. The membranes were characterized with elemental, scanning electron microscopy, FTIR and 1H NMR spectroscopy to identify the empirical formula & weight, surface morphology and functional group changes occurred during the incorporation of chitosan to the copolymer. The swelling behaviour, drug loading efficiency and drug release profile of the membranes were studied using UV-visible spectroscopy. The mechanical properties and in vitro degradation studies were also performed. The reactive sites, better porosity and larger surface area provided by chitosan to the copolymer led to higher drug loading efficiency and controlled drug release profile. Kinetic study revealed swelling and diffusion controlled mechanism for the membranes, which obtained from Ritger-Peppas and Higuchi model. The chitosan and its copolymer membranes were tested for antimicrobial assay using selective gram-positive and gram-negative bacterial and fungal strains. The CS-TPF-drug membranes showed an acceptable control of the growth of all the microbial species compared to CS, CS-drug and the standard metformin drug.