PHARMACEUTICAL EXCIPIENTS DISCOVERY RESEARCH GROUP (PEDReG)

PHARMACEUTICAL EXCIPIENTS DISCOVERY RESEARCH GROUP (PEDReG)

 

  1. NAME OF RESEARCH GROUP

Pharmaceutical Excipients Discovery Research Group, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Nigeria, Nsukka

  1. RESEARCH GROUP LEADER

Professor Emmanuel Chinedum Ibezim

 

  1. MEMBERS OF THE RESEARCH GROUP
  2. Professor Emmanuel Chinedum Ibezim (Department of Pharmaceutics) – Chairman
  3. Edwin Ogechukwu Omeje (Department of Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry)
  • Uchenna Estella Odo (Department of Pharmacognosy and Environmental Medicine)
  1. Ikechukwu Onyishi (Department of Pharmaceutical Technology and Industrial Pharmacy)
  2. Kenechukwu Franklin (Department of Pharmaceutics)
  3. Pharm John Ogbonna (Department of Pharmaceutics)

 

  1. OBJECTIVES
  2. To harness the rich pharmaceutical raw materials potentials of our rich biodiversity
  3. To modify the existing pharmaceutical excipients from plant, animal and mineral sources to yield superior functions
  • To explore molecular modeling as a virtual tool for discovery of new pharmaceutical excipients
  1. To understudy the physic-chemical and physicotechnical properties of existing pharmaceutical excipients
  2. To document existing pharmaceutical excipients especially those from local sources
  3. To promote collaborative work with other scientists (foreign and local) on pharmaceutical raw materials
  • To groom and sustain interest of young researchers on the development of alternative raw materials for the pharmaceutical sector.
  • Standardize existing pharmaceutical excipients
  1. ON-GOING RESEARCHES
  2. We are working on some plants such as yam, cocoyam, three-leaved yam and ginger, cashew bark gum, and Prosopis, to extract out some hydrocolloids, for possible use as pharmaceutical excipients (t
  3. ablet binders, tablet disintegrants, emulsifying agents, suspending agents).
  • We are equally exploiting some naturally occurring minerals like kaolin and bentonite for possible use as suspension formulation excipients
  1. We are also working on melon seed oil and other vegetable oils as possible excipients (dispersion medium) for liniment, lotion and injection formulations
  2. We have tried to modify hydrocolloids like maize starch by cross-linking in order to yield more efficient disintegrants and binders

 

  1. ACTION PLAN
  2. We plan to collect a dossier on available pharmaceutical excipients in the country so as to create a veritable data base.
  3. We hope to venture into virgin plants and animal parts to source alternative pharmaceutical excipients
  • We intend to develop a reliable protocol for assessment of pharmaceutical excipients
  1. We would procure necessary equipment for quality assessment of pharmaceutical excipients
  2. We would enlist some of our numerous postgraduate students to help out in some aspects of the studies
  3. We plan to try out the properties of combinations of the excipients in comparison with the single agents