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Annals of Biological Research, 2012, 3 (1):63-72
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ISSN 0976-1233
CODEN (USA): ABRNBW




63
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Formulation and evaluation of herbal effervescent granules incorporated with
Limnophila indica extract for bacillary dysentery

Sandhya S*, Gowthami G, Vinod K.R, Vidya Sravanthi E, Saikumar P, Rao K.N.V and
David Banji

Department of Pharmacognosy, Nalanda College of Pharmacy, Cherlapally, Nalgonda, Andhra Pradesh,
India
______________________________________________________________________________
ABSTRACT

The present research work is based on the formulation of herbal effervescent granules by
incorporating the crude extract of Limnophila indica for bacillary dysentery. The folklore of
Andhra Pradesh widely use this plant for dysentery. The dried powder of the plant was extracted
and then subjected to preliminary chemical tests. Then it was formulated into efferevescent
granules and then evaluated for various parameters like angle of repose, dissolution studies,
effervescent cessation time, stability studies, FTIR studies and invitro anti bacterial studies
against three shigella species and invivo anti diarrheal studies by castor oil induced diarrhea.
The preliminary chemical studies sthowe that the extract contains flavonoids, alkaloids and
tannins. The formulated effervescent granules exhibited excellent flow properties which showed
good angle of repose, carrs index, Hausners ratio, bulk density and Tapped density. The
dissolution profile was found to be very good. The FTIR studies showed that no drug polymer
interactions were there. The accelerated stability studies revealed that the product will be stable
for 57.9 months if stored at 27C. The invitro antibacterial studies proved the formulation to
possess more potent anti shigellosis activity than the standard ceftazidime used. The anti
diarrheal activity exhibited the herbal effervescent granules to be more potent than the standard
loperamide used.

Keywords: Shigella, ceftazidime, loperamide, Carrs index, dissolution.
______________________________________________________________________________
INTRODUCTION

Nature always stands as a golden mark to exemplify the outstanding phenomena of symbiosis.
Natural products from plant, animal and minerals have been the basis of the treatment of human
disease[1]. Dysentery is an infectious disease of the large intestine characterized by symptoms of
sickness, fever, headaches, abdominal pain and diarrhoea, which occasionally may be
bloodstained. Bacillary dysentery is the most common form of dysentery and is caused as a result
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of infection by different strains of the bacteria called Shigella. It is an acute infectious enteritis of
human and subhuman primates and usually causes frequent passage of small-volume, bloody
mucoid stools, accompanied by abdominal cramps and rectal pain[2]. Synthetic treatment
includes antibiotics, antidysentric drugs on to which the microorganisms developed the
resistance. Effervescent powders used as saline cathartics were available in the eighteenth
century and were subsequently listed in the official compendia as compound effervescent
powders. Effervescent mixtures have been moderately popular over the years since along with
the medicinal value of the particular preparation, they offered the public a unique dosage form
that was interesting to prepare. In addition, they provided a pleasant taste due to carbonation
which helped to mask the objectionable taste of the drugs [3,4]. Limnophila indica belongs to the
family Scrophulariaceae. It is an aquatic or marshy, aromatic short, erect diffusely branched
submerged herb
[28]
. It is highly constituted with flavonoids and essential oils. The plant is widely
used as carminative, antiseptic, filariasis, dysentery and dyspepsia[5].

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Plant was collected from the forest regions of Thalakona of Chittoor district and was
authenticated by Mr. A. Laxma Reddy, Retired Professor, Dept. of Botany, Nagarjuna
Government College, Nalgonda. The plant herbarium was prepared and deposited in the
Department of Pharmacognosy, Nalanda College of Pharmacy for future reference. The plant
was identified as Limnophila indica (Linn.) Druce (Scrophulariaceae)(Voucher No: NCOP-
NLG/phcog/10-11/038).

Procurement of Micro organisms:
Shigella flexneri MTCC 1457 was procured as freeze dried form from Microbial type culture
collection, Chandighar, India. Shigella dysentery and Shigella boydii were the two pathogenic
antibiotic resistant bacterial strains that were procured from Microbiology laboratory of
Kamineni Institute of Medical Sciences, Nalgonda, Andhra Pradesh, India.

Procurement of animals
Wistar Albino Rats of either sex weighing between 150-200g were procured from National
Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad, A.P, India. The experimental protocol was approved from the
Institutes animal ethics committee under the reference no. NCOP/IAEC/approval/36/2011 and
then experimental studies were undergone according to their rules and regulations. The animals
were housed in metabolic cages, bedded with rice husk under standard environmental conditions
and had free access to standard pellet diet and water ad libitum.

Preparation of extract
The 500g of powered plant material was defatted with petroleum ether and then extracted with
methanol for 72 h at 45C. The extract thus obtained was then concentrated under vacuum using
rotary vacuum evaporator and then subjected to preliminary chemical screening to identify the
active chemical constituents[6,7].

Formulation of Herbal Effervescent Granules
Herbal Effervescent granules were prepared by wet granulation method. 11.78g citric acid,
23.56g tartaric acid, 40.05g sodium bicarbonate and 24.6g were triturated into fine powder. Then
sufficient alcohol was added to make a damp mass. This mass was passed through sieve no 10 to
get granules and these granules were dried in hot air oven at 40C and then they were packed in
air tight container[3,4].

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Evaluation of Formulated Herbal Effervescent Granules[8-14]
Angle of repose
The fixed funnel method was employed to measure the angle of repose. A funnel was secured
with its tip at a given height (h), above a graph paper that is placed on a flat horizontal surface.
The blend was carefully pored through the funnel until the apex of the conical pile just touches
the tip of the funnel. The radius of the base of the conical pile was measured. The angle of repose
() was calculated using the following formula:

Tan = h/r ,

Where, = Angle of repose, h = Height of the cone, r = Radius of the cone base.Values for angle
of repose 30

usually indicate a free flowing material and angles 40

suggest a poorly
flowing material, 25- 30 show excellent flow properties, 31-35 show good flow properties, 36-40
show fair flow properties and41-45 showing passable flow properties.

Bulk Density
15 g powder blend introduced into a dry 100 ml cylinder, without compacting. The powder was
carefully leveled without compacting and the unsettled apparent volume, Vo, was read. The bulk
density was calculated using the following formula.


b
= M / Vo

Where,
b
= Apparent bulk density,M = Weight of sample, V = Apparent volume of powder

Tapped Density

After carrying out the procedure as given in the measurement of bulk density the cylinder
containing the sample was tapped 500 times initially followed by an additional taps of 750 times
until difference between succeeding measurement is less than 2% and then tapped volume, V
f

was measured, to the nearest graduated unit. The tapped density was calculated, in gm per ml,
using the following formula.


tap
= M / V
f

Where,
tap
= Tapped density,M = Weight of sample,V
f
= Tapped volume of powder

Carrs Index (%)
The Compressibility index (Carrs index) is a measure of the propensity of a powder to be
compressed. It is determined from the bulk and tapped densities. In theory, the less compressible
a material the more flowable it is. As such, it is measures of the relative importance of
interparticulate interactions. In a free flowing powder, such interactions are generally less
significant, and the bulk and tapped densities will be closer in value. For poorer flowing
materials, there are frequently greater inter-particle interactions, and a greater difference between
the bulk and tapped densities will be observed. These differences are reflected in the Carrs
Index which is calculated using the following formulas:

Compressibility index = [(
tap -

b
) /
tap
] / 100

Where,
b
= Bulk Density,
tap
= Tapped Density


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Table 1: Compressibility index values

Compressibility
index
Properties
10 Excellent
11 15 Good
16 20 Fair
21 25 Passable
26 31 Poor
32 37 Very Poor
>38 Very Very Poor

Hausners Ratio

Hausners ratio is an indirect index of ease of powder flow. It is calculated by the following
formula.

Hausners Ratio=Tapped density(
t
) / Bulk density(
b
)

Where
t
tapped density and
b
is bulk density. Lower Hausners ratio (<1.25) indicates better
flow properties than higher ones, between 1.25 to 1.5 showing moderate flow properties and
more than 1.5 poor flow.

Dissolution Studies
The effervescent granules were placed inside the dissolution vessel. Samples of 1ml were
withdrawn at time intervals of 5, 10, 15, 20, 25,30,35,45,60,75,90,105 and 120minutes. The
volume of dissolution fluid adjusted to 900 ml by replacing 1ml of fresh dissolution medium
after each sampling. The release studies were conducted with 3 doses of effervescent granules, &
the mean values were plotted versus time. Each sample was diluted to 10 ml and analyzed at
217nm using double beam UV and Visible Spectrophotometer against reagent blank. All
dissolution runs were performed in triplicate.

Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR)
FTIR spectra was obtained on a Perkin Elmer FTIR spectrometer (OU,Hyd) in the transmission
mode with the wave number region 2,000500 cm-1. KBr pellets were prepared by gently
mixing 1 mg sample powder with100 mg KBr.

Effervescent cessation time
100ml of distill water was taken in 250ml beaker, one dose of effervescent granules were poured
in to the beaker, effervescent cessation time and effervescent production was observed.

Stability studies
The formulation was subjected to accelerated stability study by Arrhenius method. Log %
retained was calculated and a graph was plotted between log % retained and time in hours. As it
is a straight line, it is following first order reaction. From the graph the k values are calculated
for 50C and 70C.

Invitro anti bacillary dysentery activity
Kirby-Bauer method was followed using the standardized sterile paper disc-agar diffusion
method. All Petri dishes and graduated measuring pipettes were heat sterilized in an autoclave at
120C for 1hr. Media were steam sterilized at 121C (15psi) for twenty minutes in an autoclave.
All plates were prepared with equal thickness of nutrient agar. The plates were inoculated with S.
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flexineri, S. dysentery and S.boydii. Sterile discs were impregnated with the herbal effervescent
granules (test), control as placebo (effervescent granules devoid of herbal extract) and
Ceftazidime(Standard).All the samples concentration was 1mg/ml. It was then incubated at 37C
for 48h.The experiment was performed in triplicates[15,16].

In vivo Anti Diarrheal Activity
The invivo anti diarrheal screening by castor oil induced diarrhea in wistar albino rats was
performed. Animals were housed individually with free access to food and water under standard
condition and the basal food intake, body weights to the nearest gram were noted. The animals
were starved 18 hr prior to starting biological activity. The rats were grouped into four groups of
six animals each according to their weights and housed in separate locally fabricated metabolic
cages. Group I designated as control received placebo(effervescent granules without the plant
extract), group II standard received Loperamide 3mg/kg and group III received herbal
effervescent granules (200mg/kg) (p.o). All the samples were given 1 hour before the oral
administration of cathartic agent castor oil (2 ml per rat). Oral administration of castor oil was
facilitated by the use of a stomach tube. The animals were monitored for 12 hours for
consistency of stool and frequency of defecation. At the end of this period, the total number of
faecal matter for each group and the number of diarrhoeic (wet) faeces were recorded and the
mean value for each group calculated[17,18].

Statistical analysis:
Experimental data were expressed as meanS.D. The difference between experimental groups
was compared by One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) followed by Dunnet Multiple
comparison test (control vs. test) using the soft ware Graph Pad Instat. The differences were
considered to be statistically significant when** P<0.01.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The methanolic extract of L.indica after extraction gave %yield of 28.5%w/w. When subjected to
preliminary chemical screening showed the presence of flavonoids, essential oil, tannins and
alkaloids. A suitable oral dosage form was formulated by taking into consideration of pediatric
and geriatric groups. A herbal effervescent granules was prepared as this particular formulation
can be easily administered by all age groups. The colour of the granules was olive green in
colour with citrus odour. The frictional force in a loose powder can be measured by the angle of
repose (). It is defined as, the maximum angle possible between the surface of the pile of the
powder and the horizontal plane. If more powder is added to the pile, it slides down the sides of
the pile until the mutual friction of the particles producing a surface angle , is in equilibrium
with the gravitational force. Density is defined as weight per unit volume. Bulk density, b, is
defined as the mass of the powder divided by the bulk volume and is expressed as gm/cm. The
bulk density of a powder primarily depends on particle size distribution, particle shape and the
tendency of particles to adhere together. Bulk density is very important in the size of containers
needed for handling, shipping, and storage of raw material and blend. It is also important in size
blending equipment. The Compressibility index (Carrs index) is a measure of the propensity of
a powder to be compressed. It is determined from the bulk and tapped densities. In theory, the
less compressible a material the more flow able it is. As such, it is measures of the relative
importance of inter particulate interactions. In a free flowing powder, such interactions are
generally less significant, and the bulk and tapped densities will be closer in value. For poorer
flowing materials, there are frequently greater inter-particle interactions, and a greater difference
between the bulk and tapped densities will be observed. Hausners ratio is an indirect index of
ease of powder flow. The effervescent granules were evaluated for angle of repose, Hausners
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ratio, and compressibility index[3,4]. The angle of repose was found to be 31.This value suggest
that the formulated herbal effervescent granules have very good flow property. The bulk density
and tapped density was found to be 0.43 and 0.5, respectively.The Hausners ratio obtained was
1.16, which indicates a very good flow property. The compressibility index was 14 which denote
a good flow property for the prepared herbal granules. The dissolution testing is performed to
provide invitro drug release profile for quality control purpose. The datas obtained for the drug
dissolution results suggest the safety and efficacy of the product. The principle function of the
dissolution test is optimization of therapeutic effectiveness during product development and
stability assessment, routine assessment of production quality to ensure uniformity between
production lots, assessment of bioequivalence, that is to say, production of the same biological
availability from discrete batches of products from one or different manufacturers, prediction of
in-vivo availability. The in vitro dissolution testing was performed and the results of the
effervescent granules are expressed in Table.The release of plant extract from effervescent
granules was studied using USP dissolution apparatus II (ELECTROLAB TDT-08L). The %drug
release from the formulation and extract was found to be 83.08% and 31.64% in 2 hrs
respectively(Figure 1). Hence comparatively the formulation had shown better drug release.

.

Figure1: Cumulative % drug release of effervescent granules and extract.

The FTIR studies were performed for polymer, formulated herbal effervescent granules, plant
extract and physical mixture, to analyse if there were any kind of polymer-drug interactions. The
report obtained revealed no radical interactions (Figure 2).This showed that the drug and
polymer are compatible to develop a stable product.

The invitro anti bacterial screening on three shigella species was performed for the excipients,
formulation and ceftazidime. It was observed that the formulation showed a much better activity
than the standard. The placebo also produced a mild antibacterial activity (Table 2). The three
shigella species used in the evaluation were found to be highly susceptible to the formulation
than the standard ceftazidime. Among the three two species viz; S.boydii and S. dysentery were
0
4
8
12
16
20
24
28
32
36
40
44
48
52
56
60
64
68
72
76
80
84
88
92
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 45 60 75 90 105 120
%
D
r
u
g
r
e
l
e
a
s
e
Time(min)
Extract
Formulation
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pathogenic bacterial strains which were antibiotic resistant strains. These two strains were found
to be highly sensitive to the formulation.



Figure 2: FTIR studies.A-placebo; B-herbal effervescent granules; C- crude extract; D-physical mixture.

Table 2: Anti shigellosis activity of herbal effervescent granules

Shigella
species
Zone of inhibition (mm)
Placebo(Control)
1mg/ml
Herbal effervescent granules(Test)
1mg/ml
Ceftazidime(Standard)
1mg/ml
S. dysentery 12 45 25
S. boydii 8 35 18
S. flexineri 4 12 12
Zone of inhibition reported is exclusive of disc diameter which is 6mm.

The effervescent cessation time was found to be 3minutes which denotes an optimum time.
Accelerated stability studies were performed where by the stability of the formulated herbal
effervescent granules was found to be 57.8 months when stored at 27C (Figure 3,4).

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.

Figure 3: Log %drug concentration Vs Time

.

Figure 4: LogK Vs 1/T

The invivo anti diarrheal activity screened revealed that the formulated herbal effervescent
granules produced an excellent activity which was determined to be more potent than the
standard loperaminde used (Figure 5). To evaluate whether the excipients played any role in the
activity a control group treated with placebo was performed. The results displayed that the
excipients used in the formulation of herbal effervescent granules did not possess any
antidiarrheal activity. The total number of defecation observed till 12h of observation was found
to be 70.4472, 2.20.5831** and10.3162** for placebo(standard), loperamide
3mg/kg(standard) and herbal effervescent granules 200mg/kg(test). The total number of wet
motions observed were found to be 5.20.2, 0.60.2449** and 00 for control, standard and test.
p<0.01 was considered to be significant.


y = -0.001x + 1.998
R = 0.962
y = -0.006x + 2.001
R = 0.966
y = -0.007x + 1.993
R = 0.934
1.955
1.96
1.965
1.97
1.975
1.98
1.985
1.99
1.995
2
0 1 2 3 4 5
l
o
g
%

D
r
u
g

c
o
n
c
e
n
t
r
a
t
i
o
n
months
log %ug concentration Dr VsTime
lo 27
lo 50
lo 70
!in"ar #lo 27$
!in"ar #lo 50$
!in"ar #lo 70$
y = -370.8x - 0.711
R = 1
-1.96
-1.94
-1.92
-1.9
-1.88
-1.86
-1.84
-1.82
-1.8
-1.78
0.00280.00290.0030.00310.00320.00330.0034
l
o
g

K
1/T
log K Vs 1/T
lo % &alu"'
!in"ar #lo % &alu"'$
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Figure 5: Anti diarrheal activity of herbal effervescent granules

The formulated herbal effervescent granules has shown a potent antibacterial and antidiarrheal
activity which was observed to be much better than the standard drug used. The potency of the
prepared formulation can be attributed to the excellent flow properties, dissolution profile and
the powerful phyto constituents present in the extract. The effervescent dosage forms usually
provide substantial immediate release of pharmaceutical ingredient present in it. Another
advantage of the effervescent granules is that it can provide effective taste masking of poor
tasting compounds[19]. Since dysentery is an infectious disease which requires immediate
treatment this can be a very good choice due to its potential advantages. As these problems
generally occur more in paediatric age groups the taste masking advantage of the effervescent
granules will benefit. Since these granules will have to dispersed in water and taken it can be
considered as a most promising oral dosage form for all age groups for bacillary dysentery.

CONCLUSION

It is well documented that most of the micro organisms causing dysentery have developed
resistance to synthetic medications including antibiotics. Hence it can be suggested that the
formulated herbal effervescent granules can be a very good alternative as it has proved to be very
effective for antibiotic resistant pathogenic shigella species. The synthetic anti diarrheal drugs
like loperamide generally possess side effects and cannot be taken by children under the age to
two. Since L.indica possess no side effects it can be considered to be the best alternative as it has
proved be more effective.

Acknowledgement
The authors express their gratitude to MTCC and Microbiology department of Kamineni Medical
sciences, for providing the required microorganisms. They are highly grateful to the
Management of Nalanda College of Pharmacy for providing necessary help and laboratory
facilities in performing these studies.

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http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/6071539/description.html.retrieved on 20/11/11.