Modified Drug Delivery System, The other Using of Clay

Clay is one of the most abundant natural resources. In  industrial  clay is usually used as a material for ceramics, earthenware, tile, and others. Utilization of clay in the health sector is still very rarely known by the wider community, even though its utilization has been done from the days of our ancestors. Along time ago people ate clay baked is a common thing, but in this millennial era maybe the habit is considered as something strange. 

Clay is part of a soil mineral with a layered structure that has a particle size smaller than 2 μm. Each clay layer has a thickness of around 1 nm. There are several types of clay with differences in the formulation, structure, properties that include swelling, and exfoliation. Clay plays a quite important role for the environment through its function as a natural scavenger through the process of cation or adsorption exchange. Clay has various interchangeable cations and anions that are on its surface, such as Ca 2+, Mg 2+, H +, NH4 +, Na +, SO42-, Cl-, PO43-, and NO3-. These ions can be exchanged with other ions relatively easily without affecting the mineral structure. High surface area, mechanical and chemical stability, layered structure, high cation exchange capacity make clay an excellent adsorbent material.

Clay  is one mineral that is very abundant, consisting of several types of minerals such as kaolinite, montmorillonite, illite, haloysite, and chlorite. Among these minerals, montmorillonite is the most modified mineral. In nature, montmorillonite minerals are found in bentonite. Bentonite clay contains approximately 85% montmorillonite minerals. The soil has characteristics such as feeling smooth, soft, waxy, pale in color with appearance of white, light green, gray, pink in a fresh state and if it has rotted blackish brown.

The using of clay in the health sector is not new. In France, clay soil known as illite is used because it is easy to absorb toxins in the body. Clay soils are classified as minerals because they contain calcium, aluminum, magnesium, silica, copper phosphorus, and zinc. Alternative medicine practitioners believe this composition makes French green clay very useful as a therapeutic treatment for various health problems, and is one of the most popular clays used in Pelotherapy. Clay is used extensively in the pharmaceutical world as an excipient, shielding and adsorbent agent. Clay-drug interactions (organic compounds) are more complex phenomena because they involve van der waals forces, hydrogen bonds, ion exchange, coordination and chemisorption bonds. Many researchers have reported the ability of clay soils as anti-inflammatory compounds, including Javiera et al., (2015) reported anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, and cytotoxic activity of clay. Antiinflammatory activity was determined using the compound 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA) and the myeloperoxidase (MPO) method. From his research it was found that palygorkite and sepiolite clays caused inhibition of edema (swelling) of 68.64% and 45.54% and inhibition of neutrophil migration as an indication of inflammation (inflammation) respectively by 80% and 65%.

Silva et al (2015) studied the anti-inflammatory activity of bentonite using mouse ear edema and the 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA) method. From his research it was found that bentonite inhibits edema after 4 hours.

Clay minerals are widely used in the conventional pharmaceutical field as excipients and as active substances. Clay minerals can interact with drug molecules and also with inactive components of medical products such as polymers. Based on these interactions clay minerals and their modified forms can be effectively used for modified drug delivery systems (MDDS) .In general, all forms of pharmaceutical dosage are drug delivery systems. Drug delivery systems are terms that describe how a drug gets to its target action site (Salcedo et al., 2012). Modified drug delivery system (MDDS) is a development of conventional drug delivery systems. Modifications include changes in the rate and / or time of drug release, or the site (site) of drug release. This modification can be done by several possible mechanisms such as modification of pharmaceutical formulations, or preparation methods. Modifications were made for several purposes such as reducing or increasing the rate of dissolution, slowing the release of drugs, targeting drug release, preventing or reducing side effects, and increasing stability (Viseras et al., 2010). Utilization of clay as a modified drug delivery system has been widely reported by researchers, one of them Zheng et al (2007) examined the intercalation of ibuprofen into montmorillonite and the results obtained that the release system of ibuprofen (the release system) from montmorillonite-ibuprofen nanocomposite is influenced by pH dispersion. The release rate in the simulated intestinal solution (pH = 7.4) is greater than the simulation gastric. These results indicate that montmorillonite can be used as a carrier of ibuprofen for oral use. From the research conducted by the author, the results show that the use of clay as a modified drug delivery system can reduce the toxic effects caused by drugs that have been shown by histopathological tests.

Based on the explanation above, it can be concluded that clay has a huge potential to be developed and utilized in the health sector. its activity as an anti-inflammatory  and its ability as a drug delivery system will make clay into a material that counts as a competitor to conventional medicine.