Microencapsulation of Paracetamol with Polycaprolacone Coating

Abstract

Paracetamol is widely used as a medicine for fever and pain. Paracetamol has a normal half-life in the blood of 2 hours. If paracetamol is consumed frequently it will cause stomach irritation. This research aims to cover the unpleasant taste of paracetamol by microencapsulating using a coating and changing the release of paracetamol microcapsules. In this study, the coating material used was polycaprolactone because polycaprolactone is a biodegradable coating material. The amount of coating used in this study was 1.5g, 3g and 4.5g. Paracetamol microencapsulation was carried out in evaluation tests, namely organoleptic examination and particle size. Then a characterization test was carried out, namely the surface morphology test of the paracetamol microencapsulation using the Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) method and the dissolution test. The research results showed that the concentration obtained by Formula 1 was 95.66%, Formula 2 was 97.17 and F3 was 98.81. The dissolution test results showed that the largest dissolution percentage of microcapsules in formula 1 was 97.85% at 50 minutes, formula 2 was 98.13 at 55 minutes and formula 3 was 98.91% at 60 minutes. Microencapsulation of paracetamol with polycaprolactone can cover the bitter taste and changing the release of paracetamol microcapsules into sustained release preparations.