ABSTRACT

Herbal and herbal oils obtained from plants are used in many areas due to their natural, cheap, easy-to-process, biodegradable, corrosive, and non-toxic properties. The use of new polymeric materials, especially obtained from herbal and herbal oil which maintain their structural properties for a longer period, as controlled drug release support materials in the medical field is among the most popular topics of recent times. This study focused on the synthesis of new organo-hydrogels based on thyme oil and their use as drug-release support materials. In the synthesis of organo-hydrogels (poly (AG-co-TO)), cross-linking of agar (A), glycerol (G), and thyme oil (TO) was achieved in an emulsion environment by free radical polymerization technique. Glutaraldehyde (GA) and methylenebisacrylamide (MBA) were used as cross-linkers. In poly (AG-co-TO) based organo-hydrogel synthesis, while the amounts of A, G, GA, and MBA were kept constant, TO was added to the polymerization medium in three different amounts. At the same time, paracetamol was chosen as the drug and was added to the polymerization mixture to ensure its physical or chemical binding to the organo-hydrogel structure. Finally, the release behavior and release kinetics of the drug paracetamol from the synthesized drug-loaded organo-hydrogel structure in different pH environments were examined. As a result of the release experiments, it was found that the highest release amount was 89.83 for p(AG-co-TO)3 at pH 7.4 after 4320 minutes. It was determined that the drug release efficiency of paracetamol-loaded organo-hydrogels increased as the amount of TO added to the structure increased. Considering the results obtained, it is thought that the use of thyme oil-based organo-hydrogels as drug-release support materials will make a significant contribution to the literature.

Keyword: Thyme oil, Organo-hydrogel, Paracetamol, Release, Drug kinetics