JOURNAL OF DRUG DELIVERY RESEARCH eISSN 2319-1074 1 Volume 4 Issue 4 2015 www.earthjournals.org RESEARCH ARTICLE FORMULATION AND EVALUATION OF CONTROLLED RELEASE MATRIX TABLET OF CEPHALEXIN: INFLUENCE OF COMBINATION OF HYDROPHOBIC AND HYDROPHILIC MATRIX FORMER. Reddy B.B.K.* ,1 , Nagoji K.E.V 2 , Sahoo S 3 , Shoney M 4 , Prasanthi P 5 1,4,5 Srinivasarao College of Pharmacy, P.M.Palem, Visakhapatnam-530041, Andhra Pradesh, India. 2 Sri Venkateswara College of Pharmacy, Etcherla, Srikakulam-532410, Andhra Pradesh, India. 3 P.G. Department of Chemistry, Berhampur University, Bhanja Bihar, Berhampur- 760007, Odisha, India. Corresponding author: B. Basanta Kumar Reddy ABSTRACT The aim of the present work was to design controlled release matrix tablets of Cephalexin by incorporating the drug in a matrix made up of using combination of hydrophilic and hydrophobic polymers, which prolong drug release to provide patient convenience. Hydrophilic and hydrophobic polymers such as hydroxypropyl methylcellulose of different grades and ethyl cellulose respectively, as carriers in various concentrations were used to study their release pattern and release mechanism of the drug from matrix tablets upto 12 hours. Matrix tablets were formulated with 1:1, 1:2, 1:3 and 1:4 hydrophobic to hydrophilic polymer ratio. F1 to F4 formulation were prepared with ethylcellulose and HPMC K4M in 1:1, 1:2, 1:3, 1:4, 2:1, 2:2, 2:3, 2:4, 3:1, 3:2, 3:3 and 3:4. Similarly, F5 to F8 were prepared with ethylcellulose and HPMC K15M and, and F9 to F12 were prepared with ethylcellulose and HPMC K100M and by dry granulation technique. Designed matrix tablets were evaluated for various pre-compression and post-compression parameters. F4 is the best formulation, showed 100.34% release at the end of 12 h as it showed good similarity factor as compared with theoretical release rate profile. Drug released pattern followed zero order with non-Fickian diffusion method. KEY WORDS: Matrix former, Controlled release tablet, Release Kinetics, HPMC, Ethyl cellulose. INTRODUCTION In developing countries, infectious diseases are very often. The infectious diseases are precipitated by both gram positive and gram negative bacteria hence, the treatment is necessary with broad spectrum of activity. All cephalosporin posses a wide range of bactericidal activity. Cephalexin is an orally active first generation cephalosporin, which has high activity against gram-positive bacteria, these act by inhibiting bacterial cell wall synthesis [1][2]. Controlled release dosage forms have number of advantages over conventional dosage forms, such as improved patience compliance due to decrease in dosing frequencies, reduction in fluctuation in steady-state levels and therefore better control of disease, maximum utilization of drug enabling reduction in total amount of dose administered[3][4].In the present work, an attempt has been made to design, formulate and evaluate in-vitro release of cephalexin matrix tablets. As the effect