Solvent selection taught me to have patience, work hard and make the research successful

Solvent selection taught me to have patience, work hard and make the research successful

Name:Mr. Pandurang Kamath
Affiliation:Independent Researcher
Area of research:Transdermal Patches
Title of research / project:Transdermal Patches of Metoprolol

Experiences I gained

In my college days during my M. Pharmacy, we are working on transdermal patches of Metoprolol. During the work, we were facing the problem of solvent selection. First we took acetone as solvent, but when started with acetone; polymer ethyl cellulose and PVP became shrinks sufficiently with it. Hence we could not form the better quality transdermal patch. Then we took Isopropyl alcohol. In this case we got the patches but its tensile strength was so high after drying. Similarly we tried with some other solvents also. The days were going on. Some of our friends also told that we people selected the wrong method for preparation of transdermal patches. Many failures we had faced those days. After so many trial and error along with some literature studies our team concluded with Chloroform as the solvent for our research work. We succeeded with it having the polymer ethyl cellulose, Eudragit along with PVP. The overall result for its evaluations like tensile strength, swellability, surface pH etc was found satisfactory.

Many failures we had faced those days. After so many trial and error along with some literature studies our team concluded with Chloroform as the solvent for our research work.

After the success we publish the article in a reputed Journal. In my research work I learned that we should not give up and have patience. Literature studies show us the work plan. We have to plan properly before starting of the project. One thing also I learned from those days that there is no substitute of hard work.

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