Influence of chitosan/clay in drug delivery of glucantime from PVP membranes

• Hydrogels from PVP and chitosan were processed by radiation.
• Addition of organoclay caused decrease of swelling.
• The system PVP/chitosan/clay has slower kinetic for glucantime drug delivery.

Polymeric hydrogels are receiving much attention in the past few years, as intelligent materials due to their properties for biomaterials. In this work, hydrogels of poly(N-2-vinil-pirrolidone) (PVP) containing chitosan and clay nanoparticles were obtained and characterized for glucantime drug delivery. The matrixes were crosslinked by gamma irradiation process with doses of 25 kGy. Hydrogels morphologies were observed by a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). The structural properties of the network were determined by gel fraction and swelling kinetic at 22 °C to study the capacity of water retention and, finally, drug delivery tests were performed “in vitro”. The system showed higher gel fraction for the matrix with 1.0% of clay. In this case, besides the interactions of clay ions with PVP, there were interactions of chitosan with PVP. The results of glucantime delivery at the chitosan/PVP and clay system were discussed.