Benefits of Silica Based Carriers In Drug Delivery Applications

The Influence of Pore Size and Pore Volume on Oil Desorption and Release

Liquid adsorption on solid adsorbent carriers is a technique for delivery of oils and lipids. Solid carriers provide the benefits of high surface area, strong adsorption capacity, ease of processing and the ability to generate oil/lipid loaded free flowing powder which can easily be processed to solid dosage forms. As a result, solid adsorbents are increasingly gaining the attention of formulators for the design of oil and lipid based oral drug delivery systems.

However, the ideal carrier is one which demonstrates immediate and complete release of the adsorbed component in GI tract to initiate drug dissolution and absorption process. Grace’s experts studied the influence of pore size and pore volume of different silicates. We evaluated three carriers with differing surface morphology for desorption and release properties: Mesoporous silica gel (MSG), Granulated fumed silica(GFS) and Magnesium aluminum silicate (MAS).