Five Pharmacy students from Brawijaya University used kencur (Kaempferia galanga) extract as the main raw material for the Fast Disintegrating Tablet Solid Self Emulsifying Drug Delivery System formulation as an inflammation therapy for osteoarthritis conditions.
They are Salma Latifani (Pharmacy/FK 2020), Annisa Nur Fitriani (Pharmacy/FK, 2020), Kadek Sanitha Maesayani (Pharmacy/FK, 2020), Paniroy (Pharmacy/FK, 2020), and Juan Freddy (Pharmacy/FK, 2020) who are members of the Exact Research Sector Student Creativity Program (PKM-RE) team who were funded in the Student Creativity Program event, under the guidance of lecturers apt. Oktavia Rahayu Adianingsih, S.Farm, M.Biomed from FK.
Salma Latifani as the team leader said that this research was based on OA incidence in the world which reached 527.81 million people in 2019. Currently, OA medicines on the market are generally in the form of tablets even though the majority of OA patients are elderly people who experience difficulties to swallow the tablet preparation. Long-term OA therapy can also have quite dangerous side effects, so alternative herbal treatments are needed, such as sand ginger.
“Sand Ginger is known to contain ethyl para methoxycinnamate (EPMC) which has been proven to have anti-inflammatory activity so it has potential as an anti-inflammatory therapy for osteoarthritis,” said Salma.
However, EPMC in sand ginger has low solubility so it can slow down the process of absorption of active substances in the body. Therefore, sand ginger extract needs to be reformulated into Fast Disintegrating Tablet Solid Self Emulsifying Drug Delivery System (FDT-S-SNEDDS). FDT S-SNEDDS is a tablet that disintegrates in the mouth in less than one minute which has advantages in terms of stability and effectiveness and can make it easier for elderly patients to take medication.
The SNEDDS formulation was carried out by optimizing the ratio of surfactant to co-surfactant to obtain a particle size of <100 nm. In the FDT S-SNEDDS formulation, it is also known that this tablet formulation has a disintegration time of less than 1 minute. This shows that the SNEDDS formulation prepared provides results that meet the expected specifications.
Next, the optimum FDT S-SNEDDS formula was tested for inflammation inhibitory activity in vivo using mice. “Our experimental animals were injected with carrageenan to form inflammation in the legs, then the reduction in edema after therapy was measured for 6 hours,” explained Juan. This research shows that the formulated preparation has proven effective in reducing inflammation in experimental animals when compared to extract therapy alone.
Thus, FDT S-SNEDDS sand ginger extract has the potential to be a solution in increasing medication adherence for OA patients. The research team hopes that the results of this research can provide support to the pharmaceutical industry to produce FDT S-SNEDDS and become an important innovation in the development of OA therapy.
Osteoarthritis is chronic inflammation in the joints due to damage to the cartilage. Osteoarthritis is the most common type of arthritis or joint inflammation. This condition causes complaints, such as joint pain, stiffness and swelling. [tim/sitirahma/ UB PR/ Trans. Iir]
