Abstract:
This study aims to develop a platform of orally disintegrating film (ODF) with gelatin and modified sweet potato starch. The novelty of this work lies on investigating the influence of sweet potato derived starch and its modification on the functional properties of gelatin based orally disintegrating film. Starch was extracted from native sweet potato and two types of physical modification, pregelatinization and alcohol alkaline treatment (AA) were employed on the sweet potato starch. These modification processes changed the surface morphology as well as physiochemical properties of starch such as crystallinity, amylose content, swelling and viscosity which were measured in this study. Incorporating this modified starch, a gelatin-starch based matrix was developed with tunable properties. Structural characterization and possible interactions of gelatin-modified starch matrix were confirmed by field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), attenuated total reflection fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) and simultaneous thermal analysis (STA). After the incorporation of pregelatinized sweet potato starch, ODFs showed enhanced tensile strength, on the other hand incorporation of alcohol-alkaline treated starch showed enhanced elongation value of the films. However, both of the starch modification resulted in higher hydrophilicity of films which was represented in the contact angle (57% less) and disintegration time (37% decrease) values compared to gelatin films. In vitro drug dissolution was assessed with folic acid, a B vitamin, which followed immediate release profile. Later hemolytic assay of the ODFs assured that the developed ODFs were biocompatible. Owing to improved hydrophilicity, mechanical properties and biocompability, this gelatin-starch based ODFs present a wide range of possibilities for being used as a rapid release platform for therapeutics.