Ciprofloxacin (Cipro) incorporation into Li-fluorhectorite (LiFh) clay and its temperaturecontrolled release. with potential pharmaceutical and biomedical applications.Structural characterization of the raw material and the clay-drug composites.Demonstration of the temperature-controlled drug release abilities of a colloidal suspension of the clay-drug composite, following pharmaceutical standards.
AbstractClays have shown to be good candidates as drug delivery carriers. In the present paper, we use the temperature-dependent swelling of smectite clays to produce clay-drug composites with sizable drug load capacity. Specifically, we obtain a fluorohectorite-ciprofloxacin (Fh-Cipro) composite, in which a true intercalation of the drug between the clay interlayers has been verified by various experimental techniques. We evaluate the thermally activated drug release from a colloidal suspension of nanosized composite particles in water as well as in synthetic gastric juice from 37 0 C (body temperature) to 85 0 C. The temporal profiles of drug release from the clay fulfil the pharmaceutical standards for these systems. In this work, we have been able to produce a clay-based Temperature Controlled Release System (TCRS) with potential biomedical applications.