In this study, the potential of the spray-drying technique for preparing microspheres able to modify the release profile of carbamazepine was investigated. Low-, medium- and high-molecular-weight chitosan and hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) in different drug-polymer ratios were used for the preparation of microspheres. The microspheres, characterized by X-ray powder diffractometry (XRD) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), were also studied with respect to particle size distribution, drug content and drug release. The results indicated that the entrapment efficiency (EE), as well as carbamazepine release profile, depended on polymeric composition and drug-polymer ratios of the microspheres prepared. The best entrapment efficiencies were obtained when chitosan of low-molecular-weight (CL) or HPMC were used for the microencapsulation. For all types of polymer used, the microspheres with low carbamazepine loading (6.3% w/w) showed better control of drug release than the microspheres with higher drug loadings. The HPMC microspheres showed the slowest carbamazepine release profile with no initial burst effect. Carbamazepine release profiles from ternary systems, carbamazepine-CL-HPMC microspheres, depended mostly on HPMC content and showed similar carbamazepine release profile as CL microspheres when HPMC content was low (9:1 CL-HPMC ratio, w/w). Otherwise, the carbamazepine release from CL-HPMC microspheres was remarkably faster than from either chitosan or HPMC microspheres. The release profile of carbamazepine from the microspheres was highly correlated with the crystalline changes occurring in the matrix.
