Peptic ulcer disease (PUD) is a critical health issue in the world, and acid suppression using proton pump inhibitors such as omeprazole is an essential part of treatment. The standard administration of omeprazole is, however, undermined by its acid sensitivity, reduced gastric retention and pronounced pharmacokinetic discrepancy thus limiting its local therapeutic activity in healing ulcers and eradication of H. pylori. In a bid to address these limitations, this study endeavored to design and describe a new multifunctional gastroretentive system. The floating mucoadhesive microspheres with omeprazole loaded in spheres were effectively prepared and produced through a hybrid method that involves ionotropic gelation and solvent evaporation of emulsion. The polymeric mixture which was used is a blend of sodium alginate, chitosan, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC K4M) and ethyl cellulose. The FTIR and DSC preformulation studies confirmed that drug-excipient incompatibility did not exist. The polymer-to-drug ratio and calcium chloride concentration used were seen to be the factors that had critical impact on the properties of the system, using a factorial design. The optimized formulation (Batch B5, 2:1 ratio, 10% CaCl2) had a high drug entrapment efficiency (89.5 +- 1.4%), good buoyancy with short floating lag time (48.9 +- 4.1 seconds) and total floating time (>12 hours) and high in vitro mucoadhesion (84.6 +- 2.8%). The SEM revealed the existence of spherical particles having porous surface which is necessary in creating buoyancy. The drug release of the in vitro experiment in 0.1N HCl was maintained in 12 hours and the kinetics were best explained by the KorsmeyerPeppas model (R2=0.994) which is an anomalous transport characterized by polymer relaxation and diffusion. The microspheres had good flow characteristics, and they were stable within accelerated conditions in three months. Finally, this research was able to develop a stable, multi-particulate system that synergistically integrates floating and mucoadhesive. This is an exciting long-term method of gastric retention and localized long-term omeprazole delivery that has the potential to increase the effectiveness of therapies, decrease the dose of the drug, and increase patient compliance in PUD management..
Keywords: Omeprazole; Peptic Ulcer Disease; Floating Microspheres; Mucoadhesive Microspheres; Gastroretentive Drug Delivery System (GRDDS).
How to cite this article: Kashid VA, Aggarwal D, Sikarwar GS, Garg R, Bhojak N, Khantal A. Design And Evaluation Of Omeprazole Loaded Floating Mucoadhesive Microspheres For Sustained Antiulcer Therapy..Int J Drug Deliv Technol. 2026;16(1): 34-43, DOI: 10.25258/ijddt.16.1.3