Abstract This study has explored the use of self-emulsifying drug delivery system (SEDDS) to enhance the oral bioavailability of the poorly water soluble drug eprosartan. On the basis of solubility studies Labrafac Lipophile WL 1349 was selected as oil phase, Tween 80 as surfactant and capryol 90 as cosurfactant. Pseudo-ternary phase diagrams were plotted to check for the micro-emulsification range. Percentage transmittance, spontaneous emulsification test, robustness to dilution, emulsification time, thermodynamic stability studies and globule size analysis were carried out to characterize optimized formulations. The influence of surfactant and cosurfactant concentration on droplet size of selected system was assessed. The optimized formulation was found to show a significant in vitro drug release i.e. 98.3% (data is under process to publish). The bioavailability of the drug from SEDDS formulation and aqueous suspension was investigated in rats and it was found that the SEDDS formulation enhanced drug absorption and oral bioavailability compared to the aqueous suspension.
Keywords Eprosartan, Self-emulsifying drug delivery system (SEDDS), Bioavailability, Labrafac lipophile WL 1349, Capryol 90, Tween 80