Macromolecular Chitosan/Ciprofloxacin Pro-Drugs: Synthesis, Physico-chemical and Biological Assessment for Drug Delivery Systems

Chitosan based ciprofloxacin prodrug conjugate has been successfully synthesized using isopropyl alcohol/water and glacial acetic acid mixture and the film was made by solution casting method. The FTIR spectrum result showed that chitosan-ciprofloxacin (CH-CFX) complex exhibits an electrostatic interaction between NH3+ group of chitosan and COO- group of ciprofloxacin. The physical parameters of CH-CFX complex were analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The thermal stability of chitosan and CH-CFX complex was checked by DSC. The antibacterial activity of the complex against various micro-organisms viz. Escherichia cob, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus subtilis were evaluated and found that the antibacterial activity of CH-CFX complex was several times greater than that of parent drug ciprofloxacin. This may be due to the favourable pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, excellent bacterial susceptibility and good stability of the drug conjugate.