Physicochemical Evaluation of Some Commercially Available Brands of Atenolol Tablets of Bangladesh

Abstract

Atenolol, a cardiovascular drug, is mainly used to reduce blood pressure and available worldwide under various trade names. The purpose of the current study is to ascertain physicochemical equivalence among the five different brands of atenolol 100 mg tablets commercially obtainable in Bangladesh. The sample tablets were examined for their weight variation, hardness, thickness, friability and disintegration time as well as dissolution time were evaluated spectrophotometrically conferring to the official (BP/USP) methods. The results showed that all brands of tablets showed satisfied results when they were tested for weight variation, hardness, thickness, friability, disintegration time and dissolution time. All the five brands were disintegrate within 15 minutes which comply the USP/BP recommendation. The tested brands were identical according to their dissolution evaluation. All brands showed more than 90 % drug release within 45 minutes and ranged from 99.09% to 100.98%. It can be summarized that the physicochemical properties of all five brands of atenolol tablets marketed in Bangladesh meet BP/USP specifications which indicated that they are pharmaceutically equivalent. Therefore, patients can safely choose anyone of the brands.