查看文章

Taste masking is required for bitter drugs to enhance patient compliance, especially among the paediatric population. Paracetamol, the first line for paediatricians to treat pain and fever, is known for its bitter taste. This study aimed to mask the bitter taste of paracetamol and explore the potential of alginate microencapsulation in palatability improvement. Chitosan-coated paracetamol alginate beads were optimised using electrospray to obtain spherical beads with size below 1.5 mm. The encapsulation efficiency (EE) of the uncoated beads decreased with increased gelation time to reach 5 ± 1.32% at 60 min. Chitosan coating enhanced EE to 50–76% depending on chitosan type and concentration. EE significantly improved to 99.0 ± 1.1% by saturating the gelation bath with paracetamol. In vitro taste masking test and in vivo palatability evaluation using 12 human volunteers demonstrated that dry chitosan-coated …