Journal articles on the topic 'Non-Effervescent Systems'

Floating drug delivery system (FDDS) helps to improve the buoyancy property of the drug over the gastric fluids and hence maintain the longer duration of action. It is helpful in minimizing the dosing frequency. The density of dosage form must be less than the density of gastric contents (1.004 gm/ml) in FDDS. It may effervescent or non-effervescent system. The drugs having narrow absorption window in GIT is good candidate for the floating drug delivery system. The main objective of writing this review article is to compile the recent literature with special focus on classification, approaches to design single-unit and multiple-unit floating systems, and their classification and formulation aspects are covered in detail.

This review was written with the intention of gathering the most recent research on floating drug delivery systems (FDDS), with a particular emphasis on the many kinds of FDDS, their principles, and the mechanism of floating to achieve gastric retention. Systems for delivering drugs that float instantly when they come into touch with the stomach With absorption windows in the upper small intestine, fluids offer intriguing strategies for boosting the bioavailability of medications. The most recent developments in FDDS, such as the formulation and physiological aspects that affect stomach retention and techniques for creating single-unit and multiple-unit floating systems, are covered in detail.The goal of the floating drug delivery system (FDDS) is to prolong the period of stomach stay in order to improve bioavailability and therapeutic efficacy.FDDS releases the drug gradually and regulatedly by allowing the dosage form to float over stomach contents with the use of effervescent agents and low-density.

This review was written with the intention of gathering the most recent research on floating drug delivery systems (FDDS), with a particular emphasis on the many kinds of FDDS, their principles, and the mechanism of floating to achieve gastric retention. Systems for delivering drugs that float instantly when they come into touch with the stomach With absorption windows in the upper small intestine, fluids offer intriguing strategies for boosting the bioavailability of medications. The most recent developments in FDDS, such as the formulation and physiological aspects that affect stomach retention and techniques for creating single-unit and multiple-unit floating systems, are covered in detail.The goal of the floating drug delivery system (FDDS) is to prolong the period of stomach stay in order to improve bioavailability and therapeutic efficacy.FDDS releases the drug gradually and regulatedly by allowing the dosage form to float over stomach contents with the use of effervescent agents and low-density.

Floating drug delivery systems (FDDS) are designed with a lower bulk density than gastric fluids, enabling them to remain buoyant in the stomach for extended periods without affecting the gastric emptying rate. While floating on the stomach's contents, these systems release medication in a controlled and sustained manner. Once the drug is fully released, the system disintegrates or is emptied from the stomach. This mechanism increases the Gastric Residence Time (GRT), leading to improved control over fluctuations in plasma drug concentration. To achieve this, FDDS must possess sufficient structural integrity to form a cohesive gel barrier and release the drug gradually while maintaining a density lower than that of gastric fluids. These systems are typically developed using effervescent and non-effervescent approaches that rely on buoyancy mechanisms. Such methodologies are particularly beneficial for delivering drugs with a narrow therapeutic window. Our review aims to provide detailed insights into the pharmaceutical principles guiding the design, classification, and preparation of FDDS. It also explores factors influencing their performance, their advantages, applications, limitations, and potential future advancements in this innovative drug delivery system. Keywords: Floating drug delivery system, Polymer, Gastroretentive system, Prolonged Gastric Retention, Controlled Drug Release.

In the current days, gastro retentive drug delivery systems (GRDDS) receive the great attention because they increase the performance of controlled release dosage forms, which can take orally. It is a widely employed technique to retain the dosage form in the stomach for a long period by releasing the drug slowly. These systems improved the patient compliance, which increases the therapeutic index of drugs. Various physiological barriers associated with the gastro retentive drug delivery systems such as short gastric retentive time, variation in gastric emptying time that can reduced by this technique. To formulate GRDDS various approaches like floating drug delivery systems, non-effervescent drug delivery systems, high density drug delivery systems, bioadhesive systems, magnetic systems, expandable systems etc.,. The present review mainly focuses on the requirements for formulating the GRDDS, various approaches involved in formulation and factors affecting gastric residence time.

Pharmaceutical technology has advanced significantly with the advent of Novel Drug Delivery Systems (NDDS), especially in the area of creating novel and creative formulations intended to increase therapeutic efficacy. In addition to improving the stability, bioavailability, and general safety of pharmaceutical substances, these advanced NDDS play a crucial role in protecting them against several types of degradation that may take place during storage or after administration. Among the wide variety of NDDS floating tablets, there are special benefits and mechanisms catered to particular medical requirements. Additionally, the developed floating tablets show off their exceptional ability to stay afloat in the stomach contents, allowing for the regulated release of medications over a longer time frame. This ultimately improves therapeutic outcomes and gastric retention. The goal of this paper is to present a thorough analysis of floating tablets, covering their mechanism, preparation techniques, and assessment criteria. and conclusion. In order to achieve the best buoyancy and drug release kinetics, major formulation elements such polymer selection, gasgeneration agents, and tablet density are essential. Floating methods are divided into effervescent and non-effervescent systems. The advantages of these sophisticated systems include not just improved drug absorption but also a notable decrease in unfavorable side effects for specific drug classes. Researchers and pharmaceutical professionals looking to create novel and potent floating tablet formulations might use this review as a resource

The main goal of any drug delivery system is to achieve desired concentration of the drug in blood or tissue, which is therapeutically effective and non-toxic for a prolonged period. Current pharmaceutical scenario focuses on the formulation of floating drug delivery system (FDDS). FDDS are low density systems that float over the gastric contents and remain buoyant in the stomach for a prolonged period of time without affecting the gastric emptying rate. The aim of writing this review is to compile the current literature with special focus on the principal mechanism of floatation to attain gastric retention. Effervescent FDDS release CO2 gas, thus reduce the density of the system and remain buoyant in the stomach for a prolonged period of time and released the drug slowly at a desired rate so it can be used to prolong the gastric residence time in order to improve the bioavailability of drug. The review briefly describes the mechanism, types of floating system, advantages, limitation, factors affecting floating system, drug candidates suitable for floating, evaluation parameters and application of the system. These systems are useful to several problems encountered during the development of a pharmaceutical dosage form and the future potential of FDDS.
 Keywords: Floating drug delivery system, Absorption Window, Effervescent system, floating lag time.

In the present study which the aim to evaluate the effect of hydrophilic polymer on the biopharmaceutical properties of metformin hydrochloride floating tablets, we have prepared floating systems using melt granulation, according to effervescent approach. Two hydrophilic polymers are used at various concentrations (10, 12.5, 15 and 17.5%), Acacia gum and hydroxypropylmethylcellulose (HPMC) at three viscosity grades (K4M, K15M and K100M). In addition to the satisfactory physical parameters, the evaluation of buoyancy and&nbsp;<em>in vitro</em>&nbsp;dissolution of floating developed systems revealed that the biopharmaceutical performances of these systems depended on the nature of the polymer. Unlike the acacia gum which did not produce floating systems, the HPMC matrixes had good buoyancy properties: fast buoyancy time (240&plusmn;30 to 360&plusmn;30 sec) and total flotation time more than 24 hours with matrix maintained integrity. In addition, in the case of HPMC, a significant influence of viscosity grade on MTH kinetics has been demonstrated. Indeed, the observed results showed that at 17.5% of HPMC, as the viscosity grade increases, the dissolution kinetics of metformin HCl was extended. The formulations F8 (HPMC K15M) and F12 (HPMC K100M) have exhibited the drug release rates of about 92 and 80% respectively at the end of 8 hours dissolving. These formulations followed Korsmeyer-Peppas/Higuchi release kinetics according to a Non-Fickian mechanism. Finally, the melting granulation process of MTH with stearic acid, in the case of HPMC K100M, used at high concentration (17.5%), has allowed the development of extended-release effervescent floating tablets (&gt; 8 h).

The objective of the present work to develop extended-release floating matrix tablets of ATZ, which were designed to prolong the gastric residence time and drug release after oral administration. Different grades of low-density lipid (i.e. ethylcellulose) and Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (i.e. HPMC K100M) were used to get the desired floating and prolonged release profile over an extended period. All the formulations extended the drug release up to 24 hours and more and the formulations were optimized for the desired release profiles. The release and floating property depended on the polymer type and polymer proportion. The formulation prepared with EC and HPMC K100M (i.e. 10%, 20%, and 30%) has more floating time than the formulation prepared with the EC alone. The optimized formulation (F10) prepared with a combination of EC N100 and HPMC K100M was evaluated for In vivo radiographic study, which shows the floating property for up to 9 hours. The DSC study shows that there is no drug-polymer interaction. This study gives the preliminary idea about the development of the floating drug delivery systems of Atazanavir without the use of a gas generating agent. Keywords: Non-effervescent, extended-release, gastric residence time, buoyancy, lipid aid.

Objective: The current study was projected to prepare a losartan potassium gastroretentive drug delivery system (GRDDS) of floating tablets was planned to enhance the gastric residence time, thus prolong the drug release.Methods: Effervescent floating matrix tablets of losartan potassium were prepared by direct compression technique using polymers like HPMC k4m, guar gum, and gum karaya, with lubricants magnesium stearate and talc. In the present study, sodium bicarbonate was incorporated as a gas generating agent. Total nine formulations were designed and evaluated for pre-compression parameters known as the angle of repose, bulk density, tapped density, Hausner’s ratio, compressibility index, and post-compression parameters are uniformity of weight, hardness, and drug content percentage, variability, in vitro buoyancy, dissolution studies, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR).Results: An in vitro dissolution study was carried out by using buffer pH 1.2. From in vitro dissolution studies, it has been found that an increase in polymer concentration diminishes the drug release profile. The in vitro drug release percentage from F4-F9 formulations ranged from 60.28%-98.66% at the closing of 12 h and buoyancy found over 12 h.Conclusion: The in vitro drug release from F1-F3 and F7-F9 followed zero-order, F4 followed Higuchi order, F5 and F6 followed Hixon-Crowell release kinetics. The drug release mechanism was set up to be F1-F8 non-Fickian (anomalous behavior) and F9 having Fickian diffusion type.

Kombucha, a fermented tea beverage with an acidic and effervescent taste, is composed of a multispecies microbial ecosystem with complex interactions that are characterized by both cooperation and conflict. In kombucha, a complex community of bacteria and yeast initiates the fermentation of a starter tea (usually black or green tea with sugar), producing a biofilm that covers the liquid over several weeks. This happens through several fermentative phases that are characterized by cooperation and competition among the microbes within the kombucha solution. Yeast produce invertase as a public good that enables both yeast and bacteria to metabolize sugars. Bacteria produce a surface biofilm which may act as a public good providing protection from invaders, storage for resources, and greater access to oxygen for microbes embedded within it. The ethanol and acid produced during the fermentative process (by yeast and bacteria, respectively) may also help to protect the system from invasion by microbial competitors from the environment. Thus, kombucha can serve as a model system for addressing important questions about the evolution of cooperation and conflict in diverse multispecies systems. Further, it has the potential to be artificially selected to specialize it for particular human uses, including the development of antimicrobial ecosystems and novel materials. Finally, kombucha is easily-propagated, non-toxic, and inexpensive, making it an excellent system for scientific inquiry and citizen science.

<strong>Andrusiewicz Kinga, Czapska Mirella, Nieradko-Iwanicka Barbara</strong><strong>. </strong><strong>Detection of carbonates in water softeners</strong><strong>. Journal of Education, Health and Sport. 2020;10(6):82-87. eISSN 2391-8306. DOI </strong><strong>http://dx.doi.org/10.12775/JEHS.2020.10.06.008</strong> <strong>https://apcz.umk.pl/czasopisma/index.php/JEHS/article/view/JEHS.2020.10.06.008&nbsp; </strong> <strong>https://zenodo.org/record/3889821</strong> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; <strong>The journal has had 5 points in Ministry of Science and Higher Education parametric evaluation. &sect; 8. 2) and &sect; 12. 1. 2) 22.02.2019.</strong> <strong>&copy; The Authors 2020;</strong> <strong>This article is published with open access at Licensee Open Journal Systems of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Poland</strong> <strong>Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author (s) and source are credited. This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non commercial license Share alike.</strong> <strong>(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) which permits unrestricted, non commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.</strong> <strong>The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this paper.</strong> &nbsp; <strong>Received: 25.05.2020. Revised: 30.05.2020. Accepted: 11.06.2020.</strong> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; <strong>Detection of carbonates in water softeners</strong> &nbsp; <strong>Kinga Andrusiewicz, Mirella Czapska, Barbara Nieradko-Iwanicka</strong> &nbsp; Name Kinga Andrusiewicz&nbsp; Affiliation Students&#39; Scientific Association at the Chair and Department of Hygiene, Medical University of Lublin Country Poland Bio Statement student &nbsp; Name Mirella Czapska&nbsp; Affiliation Chair and Department of Epidemiology and Methodology of Clinical Trials, Medical University of Lublin Country Poland Bio Statement technitian &nbsp; Name Barbara Nieradko-Iwanicka&nbsp; ORCID iD http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4839-6003 Affiliation Chair and Department of Hygiene, Medical University of Lublin Country Poland Bio Statement associate professor Principal contact for editorial correspondence. &nbsp; &nbsp; <strong>Abstract</strong> The skin is one of the most important and the largest organ of human body. Skin hygiene requires use of water. Water can be hard. Hard water effectively hinders the washing process. The purpose of the work is to detect carbonates in bath salts and water softeners. Materials and methods A total of 80 samples were collected: micellar fluids-5, tonics-6, shampoos-17, shower gels-6, bath salts-13, soaps-11, washing gels-6, softeners-3, washing capsules-3, washing powders-4, dishwasher tablets-5, bathwatercolour-1. One gram of test substance was added to 10 cm3 of distilled water, heated until the precipitate dissolved and poured into a tube. A few drops of 3 mol / dm3 H2SO4 were added. The evolution of gas bubbles indicated the presence of carbonates. In our experiment we have found the presence of bicarbonate only in effervescent tablets for baby baths, Salt Iwonicka and in bathing balls. Conclusions: Not all products containing &quot;bath salt&quot; contain bicarbonate. Budget bath salts in the composition have sodium chloride or sodium lauryl sulphate, but they do not contain bicarbonate. Micellar liquids, shower gels, face wash gels, soaps, shampoos, powders and liquids for washing and rinsing fabrics, dishwasher products do not contain carbonates. The most bicarbonate salt contains Iwonicka Salt. Detergents such as washing powders, washing liquids and fabric rinses and dishwasher products contain phosphonates, which give off abundant foam. &nbsp; <strong>Key words:</strong> carbonates; water softeners; hard water; skin

Floating drug delivery systems are low density systems that float over the gastric content and remain buoyant in the stomach for a prolonged period of time. They enhance drug bioavailability, reduce drug wastage, and provide controlled drug delivery and better patient compliance. Several approaches are currently being used to prolong the GRT, including floating drug delivery systems (FDDS), also known as hydrodynammically balanced systems (HBS), swelling and expanding systems, high density systems, and other delayed gastric emptying devices. The methodologies used in the development of FDDS by formulating effervescent and non-effervescent floating tablet based on buoyancy mechanism. Floating drug delivery systems (FDDS) was to organize the recently focus on the principal mechanism of floatation to achieve gastric retention time. This review article on FDDS includes the different types of FDDS, polymers used in formulation of FDDS, methods for manufacturing of granules, evaluation parameters.

Gastric emptying is a complex process and one of the most important obstacles in the better absorption and enhances bioavailability of oral drug delivery system. In recent years various scientific and technological advancements have been made in the research and development of oral drug delivery systems to overcoming physiological adversities, such as short gastric residence times (GRT) and unpredictable gastric emptying time (GET). In order to avoid such adversities, efforts have been made to increase the retention time of the drug-delivery systems for more than 12 hour via floating drug delivery system Diverse attempts were being currently used including swelling and expanding system, polymeric bio adhesive systems, modified-shape systems, high density system and other delayed gastric emptying devices. The purpose of this review was to systemize recent approaches on floating drug delivery systems along with the principle mechanism of floatation to acquired gastric retention.

AbstractBACKGROUNDThe quadruple‐phase disperse system (QPDS) comprises gas, solid particles, water and non‐aqueous (oil) phases. QPDS has been widely applied in various fields and aligns with current trends towards healthier dietary choices. However, the limited stability and inconvenient preparation of QPDS restrict its applications. In response to the challenges, this study focuses on creating QPDS by effervescent oleogel.RESULTSInitially, in order to enable the incorporation of the oil phase into the effervescent system and stable the system, a novel effervescent system, namely effervescent oleogel, was innovatively developed. The optimal effervescent oleogel formed a QPDS upon water exposure, characterized by its microstructure, droplet size/distribution, foaming properties and stability. This confirms that the QPDS is an emulsion foam containing solid particles with the Pickering effect playing a crucial role in stabilization. And higher effervescent agent content leads to larger bubbles, smaller oil droplets, higher foaming ability, yet reduced QPDS stability. Effervescent oleogels remained stable for 64 days with QPDS showing comparable mechanical properties to those prepared by fresh effervescent oleogels. The QPDS enhanced viscosity and adhesion properties making it more suitable for Chinese hotpot dips.CONCLUSIONThis study innovatively employs the effervescence method to prepare QPDS. The primary advantage of this method lies in its ability to replace the traditional mechanical foaming process for the preparation of QPDS, thereby simplifying the fabrication of foam systems. This approach offers insights into food foam preparation and stability. © 2025 Society of Chemical Industry.

Oral route of drug administration is the most convenient route and accepted route of drug delivery. It is probable that at least 90% of all the drugs given by oral route. There are different drug deliveries to cure the diseases through oral route. Among them Gastroretentive drug delivery system plays an important and significant role in novel drug delivery systems. The floating systems, bioadhesive drug delivery system, expandable drug delivery system, high density systems, effervescent systems (Gas Generating systems), non-effervescent systems etc are various approaches. The wide applications can be achieved through this delivery system are enhanced bioavailability, sustained drug delivery, site-specific drug delivery, absorption enhancement, mitigating adversity at colon etc. In addition to specified above, the advantages and disadvantages, drugs and polymers used and the method of evaluation is also summarized in this review.

Objective: The main objective of the research work is to develop a single unit non-effervescent drug delivery system of Loratadine (LTD) by direct compression process to prolong the gastric residence time (GRT).&#x0D; Methods: LTD non-effervescent tablets were prepared with different polymers like hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) K15M, HPMC K100M (i.e.: 1:1, 1:2, 1:3) as release retardants. Glyceryl behenate (Compritol 888 ATO) and Glyceryl palmitostearate (Precirol ATO 5) were used (1:1, 1:2, 1:3) as low-density lipids to impart buoyancy for longer period.&#x0D; Results: The drug (LTD) and excipient (i.e. HPMC, low-density lipid aids, etc.,) interaction studies were carried out by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and there was no likely interaction involving them. The developed LTD floating matrix tablets were characterized by pre and post-compression parameters and all results were, found within the pharmacopoeial limits. The cumulative percentage of drug release ranges from 56.87±0.25 % (F12) to 99.87±0.09 % (F2). The drug release profiles of the all formulations (F1 to F12) were subjected to various pharmacokinetic parameters and the optimized formulation (F3) followed the Korsmeyer Peppas (R2=0.996) model with non-Fickian diffusion (n&gt;0.5). The obtained data by radiographic images of F3 formulation showed the GRT is 6±0.5 h (n=3).&#x0D; Conclusion: Hence, from all evaluation studies, it was evident that F3 formulation was optimized (99.82±1.63 % drug release in 12 h).

Oral drug delivery is limited by incomplete absorption in the digestive tract. The absorption of oral drugs in the stomach is affected by several factors, including gastric residence time, which causes the drug to be unable to be retained in the stomach for a long time, causing suboptimal drug absorption. One of the drug delivery systems that can prolong contact duration within the stomach is gastroretentive drug delivery system (GRDDS). GRDDS has various advantages, notably in improving the bioavailability of drugs. Several systems are involved in the GRDDS, including the floating and mucoadhesive systems. The floating system makes the drug float so it can be retained longer in the stomach. There are two mechanisms in the floating system: the effervescent and non-effervescent mechanisms. The mucoadhesive system works by adhering to the mucus or epithelial cells of the stomach. The mechanisms of mucoadhesive systems involves two stages: the contact and consolidation stages. The combination of the floating and mucoadhesive systems is aimed to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of a preparation for prolonged retention in the stomach. The choice of polymer is one of the crucial factors affecting this system. Chitosan is a natural polymer that has been evaluated for its potential in a gastroretentive floating beads delivery system. It has various advantageous properties, such as non-toxicity, biocompatibility, and biodegradability.

Abstract. Floating drug delivery system (FDDS) is a drug delivery system that can increase the residence time in the stomach. This delivery system was developed to increase the effectiveness of treatment of H. pylori infection, by extending the contact time with the mucosa (target), through the mechanism of floating in gastric fluid. This study aims to assess the formulation of FDDS preparations for the treatment of H. pylori infection. In this study, a systematic literature review was conducted from reputable articles based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. From this study, several conclusions were obtained that FDDS preparations have been developed on the active substances amoxycillin, clarithromycin, ciprofloxacin, metronidazole, and levofloxacin. Formulations using effervescent and non-effervescent systems meet the requirements of a good FDDS preparation, which has a floating lag time of &lt;60-600 seconds and a floating time of &gt;12 hours. The most widely used polymers were sodium alginate and HPMC.&#x0D; Abstrak. Floating drug delivery system (FDDS) merupakan sistem penghantaran obat yang dapat meningkatkan waktu tinggal di lambung. Sistem penghantaran ini dikembangkan untuk meningkatkan efektivitas pengobatan infeksi H. pylori, dengan cara memperpanjang waktu kontak dengan mukosa (target kerja), melalui mekanisme mengapung di cairan lambung. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk melakukan pengkajian mengenai formulasi pada sediaan FDDS untuk pengobatan infeksi H. pylori. Dalam penelitian ini dilakukan systematic literatur review yang bersumber dari artikel bereputasi berdasarkan kriteria inklusi dan eksklusi. Dari penelitian ini didapatkan beberapa kesimpulan bahwa sediaan FDDS telah dikembangkan pada zat aktif amoxycillin, claritromycin, ciprofloxacin, metronidazol, dan levofloxacin. Formulasi dengan menggunakan sistem effervescent dan non-effervescent memenuhi persyaratan sediaan FDDS yang baik, yaitu memiliki floating lag time &lt;60-600 detik dan floating time &gt;12 jam. Polimer yang paling banyak digunakan adalah sodium alginat dan HPMC.

Gastroretentive Floating Drug Delivery Systems (GRFDDS) are long-acting oral dosage forms that float on gastric juice and remain in the stomach for an elongated period gradually delivering drug substances to the upper part of the gastrointestinal system. This study aims to develop and enhance the bioavailability and stomach retention of non-effervescent riboflavin floating tablets by using a variety of polymers. In this investigation, both pre-compression evaluation and post-compression of all the tablet materials were performed according to USP specifications. In vitro, buoyancy analyses were carried out to achieve minimum floating lag time and maximum floating duration. The tablet employed direct compression methods using HPMC K17, Carbopol 940p, and polypropylene foam powder. In vitro, buoyancy studies were performed to achieve minimum floating lag time and maximum floating duration. Tablets were evaluated for physicochemical properties according to USP specifications. An optimized tablet with a floating lag time of 0.77 minutes and a floating time of 48.74 minutes was developed using Design of Experiments (DoE). The results indicated that the optimized formulation, designated as Y, performed the best. It consists of 0.45% polypropylene foam powder, 0.15% HPMC K17, and 0% Carbopol 940p. The developed non-effervescent riboflavin floating tablets have the potential to improve the bioavailability and therapeutic efficacy of riboflavin by enhancing its gastric residence time.

Floating drug delivery systems have a lower bulk density than gastric fluids and hence remain buoyant in the stomach for an extended period of time without influencing gastric emptying rate. While the system is floating on the gastric contents, the drug is slowly released from the system at the prescribed pace; after drug release, the remaining system is evacuated from the stomach. This leads in extended stomach retention time and better regulation of plasma medication concentration variations. There are two types of floating medication delivery systems. Non-effervescent and Gas-generating systems. Ciprofloxacin HCl floating tablets by using polymers like HPMC K4M, Eudragit 100S, guar gum. The prepared tablets are characterized by using different evaluation parameters like buoyancy lag time, floating time, in-vitro drug release, uniformity of drug content, hardness, friability etc. and it is optimized by factorial design using Design Expert Software. The in-vitro drug release of the optimized formulation is best fitted and found to follow Hixon crowell erosion kinetics with a higher R2 value of 0.992.

The purpose of floating microsphere's is to improve gastric retention time. The Floating drug delivery systems are lower in the bulk thickness than the gastric juice and remain floating on gastric juice for long period of time without impacting gastric-emptying rate and increasing the bioavailability. The Gastro-retentive microspheres can particularly suitable for continuous and late release of the oral formulations with blending versatility to achieve the various release patterns, low dose risk as the reproducible and short gastric retention time. Ths gastric emptying is a complex process, one that is very highly variable and it makes in vivo performance of the drug delivery systems uncertain. The controlled drug delivery system with prolonged residence time in stomach can be of great practical importance for the drugs with absorption window in upper small intestine. The main limitations can attributed to inter- and intra-subject variability of the gastro intestinal (GI) transit time and to non-uniformity of the drug absorption throughout the alimentary canal. The floating or hydro dynamically controlled drug delivery systems are useful in such applications. Various gastro retentive dosage forms are available, including tablets, pills, laminated films, floating microspheres, capsules, granules and the powders. The floating microspheres (Hollow Microspheres) are the gastro-retentive drug delivery systems based on non-effervescent approach. Hollow microspheres are in strict sense, spherical empty particles without core, free flowing powders consisting of proteins or synthetic polymers, ideally having a size in the range 1-1000 micro meter. Gastro-retentive floating microspheres are low-density systems that have sufficient buoyancy to float over gastric contents and remain in stomach for prolonged period. The drug is released slowly at desired rate resulting in increased gastric retention with reduced fluctuations in plasma drug concentration.

The non-effervescent, gastro-retentive drug delivery technology known as floating microspheres (hollow microspheres). They are free-flowing powders between 1 and 1000 micrometres in size, made of proteins or artificial polymers. The goal of the floating microsphere is to increase stomach retention time. Low-density systems with enough buoyancy to float over gastric contents and stay in the stomach for a long time are referred to as gastro-retentive floating microspheres. In addition to tablets, capsules, and pills, there are also laminated films, floating microspheres, granules, and powders that are accessible as gastro-retentive dosage forms. Since dose frequency is reduced, the main advantage of floating microspheres is improved patient compliance. Spray drying, solvent evaporation, ionotropic gelation, single emulsion, double emulsion, phase separation coacervation, and solvent diffusion are some of the numerous methods used to prepare floating microspheres. This review discusses preparation techniques, characterization benefits, the mechanism by which pharmaceuticals are released from floating microspheres, a list of drugs, a list of uses, and a list of polymers.

Efavirenz, a non-nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitor is an important drug for treating patients with Human Immunodeficiency Virus infections. It belongs to BCS class II have low solubility and poor intrinsic dissolution rate. It is highly basic (pKa 10.2) which makes it suitable candidate for floating dosage form for continuous delivery in stomach.The study was aimed to improve the solubility by solid dispersion technique.Saturation solubility study and drug content were evaluated for solid dispersion preparation. Saturation solubility shows 8 fold increases in 0.1 N HCL compared to plain drug and drug content was found to be between 95%-102%. Further effervescent floating gastroretentive drug delivery system was prepared by 32 full factorial design with independent variables i.e., concentration of HPMC K100 as matrix forming agent and citric acid as gas generating agent. Lag time, floating time, percent drug release were studied as responses. The optimized batch exhibited floating lag time of 40 sec and the in vitro release studies showed 89.5% drug release in 9 h and tablet remained floating for greater than 8 h. The study thus demonstrated that solubility is increased by solid dispersion technique and floating delivery systems may increase solubility and bioavailability of Efavirenz.

The motivation of writing this review on micro balloons is a Gastro retentive drug delivery system are micro balloons (hollow microsphere) are a drug delivery system that promises to be a potential approach for gastric retention. Microballoons drug delivery system is novel drug delivery on the foundation of non- effervescent system that containing empty particles of spherical shape without core ideally having a size less than 200 micrometers which is designed to be retained in the stomach for a prolonged period of time and release their active ingredients and thereby enable sustained and prolonged input of the drug in the upper part of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. They are gastro retentive drug-delivery systems, which provide controlled release properties for a drug. Recently gastro retentive drug delivery system (GRDDS) are gaining wide acceptance for drugs with narrow absorption windows, decreased stability at high alkaline pH, and increased solubility at low pH. The design of this article is to compose the various gastro retentive arrive. In order to understand various physiological difficulties to achieve gastric retention, we have summarized important factors controlling retention i.e. high density, floating, bio-or that adheres to a mucous membrane (adjective), extensile, attractor etc. In addition of central element controlling gastro retention, superiority and finally future potential are discussed.

Due to its potential to stay in the gastric region for a longer period of time, the gastro-retentive is one of the most promising oral drug delivery systems. This increases the solubility of the drug, which improves bioavailability and reduces drug waste. To achieve the gastro-retentive property, numerous methods have been proposed. Microballoons are the most common form among them. Microballoons (hollow microspheres) have the ability to be a viable option for gastric retention. The microballoons drug delivery system is based on a non-effervescent system that comprises hollow spherical particles with no center and a size of less than 200 micrometres. The microballoons drug delivery system has been shown to be more effective in regulating the rate of release of drugs with site-specific absorption. The floating Microballoons demonstrated gastro-retentive mediated release delivery with effective methods for increasing bioavailability, and they could be a promising solution for gastric retention. Optimized hollow microspheres could play a key role in novel drug delivery, especially in secure, targeted, and efficient in vivo delivery. They may be a promising approach for gastric retention, which would minimize variability in plasma drug concentrations. The review presents an insight in to recent advance methods of formulation, evaluation, polymers used in microballoons, applications of microballoons as gastroretentive drug delivery system which provide controlled release properties.

EDITORIAL The 7th International Conference and Exhibition on Pharmaceutical Science and Technology (PST 2024) served as an exceptional platform for showcasing cutting-edge advancements in pharmaceutical science and technology. Held in the scenic city of Chiang Mai, Thailand, and themed “Global PharmaConnect: Integrating Sciences, Technology, and Industry for a Future Sustainable Innovation,” the conference brought together innovative research addressing critical challenges in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors. This editorial highlights seven selected studies presented at the event, reflecting the diversity and ingenuity of the conference’s contributions. Kriangkrai et al. (2024) introduced advancements in effervescent floating systems by leveraging multi-layer coating techniques to enhance buoyancy and control drug release. Their novel tablet design, featuring core effervescent and gas-entrapped layers, achieved rapid floating within 1.25 min while maintaining buoyancy for over 8 h. By varying the number of spray-coating layers, the researchers fine-tuned drug release profiles, achieving zero-order and Higuchi release kinetics. This innovation provides a practical solution for gastro-retentive drug delivery, ensuring prolonged drug availability in the gastrointestinal tract. Burapapadh et al. (2024) addressed the challenge of masking the bitterness of diclofenac sodium in pediatric and geriatric formulations by developing taste-masked enteric granules using Eudragit® E PO. The optimized granules effectively masked drug’s taste while maintaining its controlled release properties in gastrointestinal environments. The polymer ratio of 1:0.25 was found to be the most effective, offering a patient-friendly solution with minimal impact on the drug’s release profile, ensuring therapeutic efficacy and patient compliance. Chamsai et al. (2024) tackled the challenge of oral administration of isophane insulin, which suffers from instability in the gastrointestinal environment, by developing nanoparticles using hydroxypropyl β-cyclodextrin-insulin complexes encapsulated within thiolated chitosan and sodium alginate. Using a full factorial design, the researchers optimized the nanoparticles to achieve small particle sizes and zeta potentials within the desirable range of +30 mV to +50 mV, ensuring both stability and efficient encapsulation. Spherical particles confirmed by transmission electron microscopic imaging demonstrated the successful incorporation of insulin, with the optimized formulation offering a promising platform for oral insulin delivery. Sobharaksha et al. (2024) investigated the potential of liquid crystal emulsions for delivering mangiferin, a natural antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compound. The emulsions, prepared using sorbitan palmitate and sucrose palmitate, displayed the characteristic Maltese cross pattern under polarized light microscopy, confirming their liquid crystal structure. Stability studies revealed that while mangiferin content decreased slightly over 90 days, its antioxidant activity remained intact. The emulsions improved skin hydration and reduced transepidermal water loss without causing irritation, highlighting their potential for cosmetic applications aimed at enhancing skin health. Sisavengsouk et al. (2024) developed a stable topical delivery system for lutein, a carotenoid with potent antioxidant properties but poor stability under environmental conditions. Using Span® 20, cholesterol, and oleic acid, the researchers formulated lutein-loaded niosomes via the thin-film hydration method. The inclusion of limonene as a skin penetration enhancer further improved lutein’s delivery into the skin. The niosomes exhibited strong antioxidant activity and superior stability compared to unencapsulated lutein, positioning this formulation as a promising candidate for cosmeceutical applications to combat oxidative skin damage. The antioxidant potential of gallic acid-derived carbon-based nanomaterials synthesized using a microwave-assisted pyrolysis method was explored by Dechsri et al. (2024). The resulting nanomaterials displayed a spherical morphology with a particle size of 104.43 nm and a significantly higher reactive oxygen species scavenging ability than gallic acid alone, with a 50% scavenging capacity of 0.99 μg/mL. Additionally, the carbon-based nanomaterials were non-toxic to human fibroblast cells, emphasizing their biocompatibility and potential as powerful antioxidants for skincare and biomedical applications. Thipunkaew et al. (2024) developed and validated a semi-automated TLC-densitometry method for quantifying 1'-acetoxychavicol acetate (ACA), a biologically active compound extracted from Alpinia galanga. The method demonstrated exceptional precision, with recovery rates exceeding 94%, and was successfully applied to green solvent extracts, including soft extracts and glycerol liquid extracts. This validated method provides a robust tool for quantifying ACA in natural product formulations, enabling its use in cosmetics and topical pharmaceuticals. These research represent the inventive spirit and scientific rigor demonstrated at PST 2024, providing answers to major pharmaceutical and healthcare concerns. The research presented, ranging from drug delivery technologies to innovative materials and cosmeceuticals, demonstrates pharmaceutical science's transformational potential in improving global health outcomes. The conference's success reflects the effort and teamwork of scholars, reviewers, and organizers, setting the path for future developments in the discipline.

&lt;p align="center"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MODERN STATE OF CREATION, PRODUCTION AND RESEARCH OF DRUGS&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align="center"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;M.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;B. &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Demchuk, &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;N.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;P. &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Darzuli, &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;T.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A. &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hroshovyi, S.V. Demchuk&lt;sup&gt;1&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align="center"&gt;TernopilStateMedicalUniversityby I.Ya. Horbachevsky&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align="center"&gt;&lt;sup&gt;1&lt;/sup&gt;JSC “Ternopharm”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Noti&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ce&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;20&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;.&lt;/strong&gt; The characteristic of process of creating and research of gastroretentive drug delivery system.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="Default"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Summary:&lt;/strong&gt; the literature on the benefits of the use and technological aspects of obtaining gastroretentive drug delivery system, such as floating, high density (sinking), mucoadhesive and magnetic systems, super porous hydrogel and matrix systems are summarized.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="Default"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Keywords:&lt;/strong&gt; gastroretentive drug delivery system, gastrointestinal tract, intragastric floating systems.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Introduction. &lt;/strong&gt;Oral administration is the most convenient and preferred means of any drug delivery to the systematic circulation. Dosage forms with a prolonged gastric residence time, i.e. gastro retentive dosage forms (GRDFs), will provide us with new and important therapeutic options. GRDFs extend significantly the period of time over which the drug may be released. Thus, they not only prolong dosing intervals, but also increase patient compliance beyond the level of existing controlled release dosage forms. Gastroretentive drug delivery is an approach to prolong gastric residence time, thereby targeting site-specific drug release in the upper gastrointestinal tract for local or systemic effects. Prolonged gastric retention improves bioavailability, reduces drug waste, and improves solubility for drugs that are less soluble in a high pH environment. It has applications also for local drug delivery to the stomach and proximal small intestine. The most important parameters which has impact on the gastric retention time of oral dosage forms include: density, size and shape of the dosage form, food intake and its nature, caloric content and frequency of intake, posture, gender, age, sex, sleep, body mass index, physical activity and diseased states of the individual (e.g. chronic disease, diabetes etc.) and administration of drugs with impact on gastrointestinal transit time.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Various attempts have been made to retain the dosage form in the stomach as a way of increasing the retention time. These attempts include introducing floating dosage forms (gas-generating systems and swelling or expanding systems), mucoadhesive systems, high-density systems, modified shape systems, gastric- emptying delaying devices and co administration of gastric emptying delaying drugs.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Floating drug delivery systems have a bulk density less than gastric fluids and so remain buoyant in the stomach without affecting gastric emptying rate for a prolonged period of time. While the system is floating on the gastric contents, the drug is released slowly at the desired rate from the system. Floating drug delivery systems can be divided into non effervescent and gasgenerating (effervescent) system.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;High density (sinking) or non- floating drug delivery systems have the density that must exceed density of normal stomach content (~ 1.004 gm/cm3). These formulations are prepared by coating drug on a heavy core or mixed with inert materials such as iron powder, barium sulphate, zinc oxide and titanium oxide etc.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Bioadhesive drug delivery systems (BDDS) are used as a delivery device within the lumen to enhance drug absorption in a site specific manner. This approach involves the use of bioadhesive polymers, which can adhere to the epithelial surface in the stomach. Materials commonly used for bioadhesion are polyacrylic acid, chitosan, cholestyramine, sodium alginate, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, sucralfate, tragacanth, dextrin, polyethylene glycol and polylactic acids etc.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Super porous hydrogel systems. In this approach to improve gastric retention time super porous hydrogels of average pore size &amp;gt;100 micro miter, swell to equilibrium size within a minute due to rapid water uptake by capillary wetting through numerous interconnected open pores.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Magnetic systems. This approach to enhance the gastric retention time is based on the simple principle that the dosage form contains a small internal magnet, and a magnet placed on the abdomen over the position of the stomach.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Conclusions.&lt;/strong&gt; The basic requirements and approaches to the development of gastroretentive drug delivery systems and examples to obtain tablets that can be kept for a long time in the stomach are considered.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;References&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;1. Garg R. Progress in sontrolled gastroretentive delivery systems / R Garg, GD Gupta // Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research. – 2008. - №7(3). – R.1055-1066.&lt;br /&gt; 2. Review on gastroretentive drug delivery system / A. Badoni I, A. Ojha, G. Gnanarajan et al. // The pharma innovation. – 2012. - Vol.1, № 8. – R.32-42.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;3. AReview on gastroretentive drug delivery system / Pranav Joshi, Priyank Patel,Hiren Modi et al. // International Journal of Pharmaceutical Science and Bioscientific Research. – 2012. – Vol. 2, Issue 3. – P.123-128.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;4. Streubel A. Drug delivery to the upper small intestine window using gastroretentive technologies / Streubel A, Siepmann J, Bodmeier R. // Curr Opin Pharmacol. – 2006. - №6. – R.501-508.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;5. Floating drug delivery systems: A review / Arrora S, Ali J, Khar RK et al. // AAPS Pharm Sci Tech. – 2005. - №6(3). – R. 372-390.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;6. Nasa P. Floating systems: a novel approach towards gastroretentive drug delivery systems / Praveen Nasa, Sheefali Mahant, Deepika Sharma // International Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. – 2010. - Vol 2, №3. – R. 2-7.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;7. Gastroretentive drug delivery systems: A review of formulation approaches / P. Rathee, M. Jain, S. Rathee et al. // The pharma innovation. – 2012. - Vol.1, № 8. – R.79 - 107.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;8. Swetha S. A Comprehensive review on gastroretentive drug delivery systems / Sandina Swetha, Ravi Teja Allena, DV. Gowda // International Journal of Research in Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences. – 2012. - Vol. 3 (3). – R. 1285-1293.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;9. Amit Kumar Nayak Gastroretentive drug delivery systems: a review / Amit Kumar Nayak, Ruma Maji, Biswarup Das // Asian Journal of Pharmaceutical and Clinical Research. - 2010. - Vol.3, Iss. 1. – R.2-10.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;10. Jaimini M. Formulation and evaluation of famotidine floating tablets / Jaimini M., Rana AC., Tanwar YS. // Current drug delivery. – 2007. - №4. –R.51-55.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;11. Development, in-vitro evaluation &amp;amp; study of effect of hardness on buoyancy time of gastro retentive floating tablets of famotidine / Akbari B.V., Dholakiya R.B., Shiyani B.G. et al. // Journal of Pharmacy Research. – 2009. - №2(10). – R.1579-1583.&lt;br /&gt; 12. Abeda Aqther Formulation and in-vitro evaluation of ornidazole gastroretentive tablets by using low density swellable polymers / Abeda Aqther, B. Pragati kumar, Peer Basha // Indian Journal of Research in Pharmacy and Biotechnology. – 2013. - № 1(5). - P.597-601.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;13. Formulation and evaluation of gastroretentive tablets of furosemide (Evaluation based on drug release kinetics and factorial designs) / Deepak Jain, Sofiya Verma, Shashi Bharti Shukla et al. // J. Chem. Pharm. Res. – 2010.- №2(4). – R.935-978.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;14. 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Design of gastroretentive drug delivery system of diltiazem hydrochloride / L. K. Omray // International Journal of Pharma Sciences and Research. – 2014. - Vol 5., №2. – R.16-19.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;19. Ghugarkar P. Advances in gastroretentive drug delivery system: a review / Ghugarkar P. // World Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. – 2015. – Vol. 4, Issue 07. – P.512-521.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;20. Ashok Ch. M. Development and in vitro evaluation of gastroretentive high density tablet of propafenone hcl / Chordiya Mayur Ashok, Senthil Kumaran K, Gangurde Hemant Hiraman // Asian J Pharmaceut Res Health Care. – 2013. – Vol.2, №5. – P.89-99.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;21. Saikh Mahammed Athar Alli Developing gastro retentive tablets: prospective planning / Saikh Mahammed Athar Alli // Inter. J. of Pharmacotherapy. – 2014. - №4(1). – R.36-42.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;22. Gastroretentive drug delivery system of a lipid lowering agent / D. Krishnarajan, N. 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Abstract Helicobacter pylori is a spiral gram negative bacteria responsible for the development of chronic active gastritis, peptic ulcer disease, gastric mucosal-associated lymphoid tissue, lymphoma and gastric carcinoma. The primary route of infection is not known, but several routes have been proposed and they include gastric-oral, oral-oral, faecal-oral, zoonotic and water/food &ndash;borne. Contamination of food by human faecal material was the main risk factor for H.pylori infection. Acquired resistance developed against the commonly used antibiotics in the eradication of H.pylori as this has been suggested to be a major cause of the treatment failure. So a gastroretentive drug delivery system was developed in order to overcome the disadvantages of conventional dosage form. Microballoons are the gastro-retentive drug delivery system based on non-effervescent approach. These are the low density system that have sufficient buoyancy to float over the gastric contents and release the drug for prolonged period of time in a controlled manner. This article mainly reviewed about H.pylori, preparation of microballoons and applications of microballoons in floating drug delivery system.

Abstract: Low density systems or adaptively coordinated systems that has enough buoyancy to float on over contents of the stomach for a significant length of time without noticeably decelerating the rate of gastric emptying are known as floating systems. To accomplish stomach retention, the principle process of flotation was specifically examined in this drug delivery system. It is advantageous to construct medications in an oral sustained release gastro-retentive dose form for those that are absorbed in the upper portions of the GIT. The development of dynamically controlled systems depends on the rate at which the stomach empties. The most recent FDDS advancements are strategies to reduce the variability that lengthens the drug delivery system's retention period to more than 12 hours. This paper also contains an overview of several contemporary in-vitro methods that demonstrate the correct. 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P Harm Res. 1997;14(6):815-9.&#x0D; &#x0D; of floating systems, and the applications of these systems are all summarised in this paper. These systems are helpful for a number of issues that arise during the creation of a pharmaceutical dosage form.

Since the late 1990s, W. G. Sebald’s innovative contribution to the genre of prose fiction has been the source of much academic scrutiny. His books Vertigo, The Rings of Saturn, The Emigrants and Austerlitz have provoked interest from diverse fields of inquiry: visual communication (Kilbourn; Patt; Zadokerski), trauma studies (Denham and McCulloh; Schmitz), and travel writing (Blackler; Zisselsberger). His work is also claimed to be a bastion for both modernist and postmodernist approaches to literature and history writing (Bere; Fuchs and Long; Long). This is in addition to numerous “guide to” type books, such as Mark McCulloh’s Understanding Sebald, Long and Whitehead’s W. G. Sebald—A Critical Companion, and the comprehensive Saturn’s Moons: A W. G. Sebald Handbook. Here I have only mentioned works available in English. I should point out that Sebald wrote in German, the country of his birth, and as one would expect much scholarship dealing with his work is confined to this language. In this article I focus on what is perhaps Sebald’s prototypical work, The Rings of Saturn. Of all Sebald’s prose fictional works The Rings of Saturn seems the example that best exhibits his innovative literary forms, including the use of lists. This book is the work of an author who is purposefully and imaginatively concerned with the nature of his vocation: what is it to be a writer? Crucially, he addresses this question not only from the perspective of a subject facing an existential crisis, but from the perspective of the documents created by writers. His works demonstrate a concern with the enabling role documents play in the thinking and writing process; how, for example, pen and paper are looped in with our capacity to reason in certain ways. Despite taking the form of fictional narratives, his books are as much motivated by a historical interest in how ideas and forms of organisation are transmitted, and how they evolve as part of an ecology; how humans become articulate within their surrounds, according to the contingencies of specific epochs and places. The Sebald critic J. J. Long accounts for this in some part in his description “archival consciousness,” which recommends that conscious experience is not simply located in the mind of a knowing, human subject, but is rather distributed between the subject and different technologies (among which writing and archives are exemplary).The most notable peculiarity of Sebald’s books lies in their abundant use of “non-syntactical” kinds of writing or inscription. My use of the term “non-syntactical” has its origins in the anthropological work of Jack Goody, who emphasises the importance of list making and tabulation in pre-literate or barely literate cultures. In Sebald’s texts, kinds of non-syntactical writing include lists, photographic images, tables, signatures, diagrams, maps, stamps, dockets and sketches. As I stress throughout this article, Sebald’s shifts between syntactical and non-syntactical forms of writing allows him to build up highly complex schemes of internal reference. Massimo Leone identifies something similar, when he notes that Sebald “orchestrates a multiplicity of voices and text-types in order to produce his own coherent discourse” (91). The play between multiplicity and coherence is at once a thematic and poetic concern for Sebald. This is to say, his texts are formal experiments with these contrasting tendencies, in addition to discussing specific historical situations in which they feature. The list is perhaps Sebald’s most widely used and variable form of non-syntactical writing, a key part of his formal and stylistic peculiarity. His lengthy sentences frequently spill over into catalogues and inventories, and the entire structure of his narratives is list-like. Discrete episodes accumulate alongside each other, rather than following a narrative arc where episodes of suspenseful gravity overshadow the significance of minor events. The Rings of Saturn details the travels of Sebald’s trademark, nameless, first person narrator, who recounts his trek along the Suffolk coastline, from Lowestoft to Ditchingham, about two years after the event. From the beginning, the narrative is framed as an effort to organise a period of time that lacks a coherent and durable form, a period of time that is in pieces, fading from the narrator’s memory. However, the movement from the chaos of forgetting to the comparatively distinct and stable details of the remembered present does not follow a continuum. Rather, the past and present are both constituted by the force of memory, which is continually crystallising and dissolving. Each event operates according to its own specific arrangement of emphasis and forgetting. Our experience of memory in the present, or recollective memory, is only one kind of memory. Sebald is concerned with a more pervasive kind of remembering, which includes the vectorial existence of non-conscious, non-human perceptual events; memory as expressed by crystals, tree roots, glaciers, and the nested relationship of fuel, fire, smoke, and ash. The Rings of Saturn is composed of ten chapters, each of which is outlined in table form at the book’s beginning. The first chapter appears as: “In hospital—Obituary—Odyssey of Thomas Browne’s skull—Anatomy lecture—Levitation—Quincunx—Fabled creatures—Urn burial.” The Rings of Saturn is of course hardly exceptional in its use of this device. Rather, it is exemplary concerning the repeated emphasis on the tension between syntactical and non-syntactical forms of writing, among which this chapter breakdown is included. Sebald continually uses the conventions of bookmaking in subtle though innovative ways. Each of these horizontally linked and divided indices might put the reader in mind of Thomas Browne’s urns, time capsules from the past, the unearthing of which is discussed in the book’s first chapter (25). The chapter outlines (and the urns) are containers that preserve a fragmentary and suggestive history. Each is a perspective on the narrator’s travels that abstracts, arranges, and uniquely refers to the narrative elaborations to come.As I have already stressed, Sebald is a writer concerned with forms of organisation. His works account for a diverse range of organisational forms, some of which instance an overt, chronological, geometric, or metrical manipulation of space and time, such as grids, star shapes, and Greenwich Mean Time. This contrasts with comparatively suggestive, insubstantial, mutable forms, including various meteorological phenomena such as cloudbanks and fog, dust and sand, and as exemplified in narrative form by the haphazard, distracted assemblage of events featured in dreams or dream logic. The relationship between these supposedly opposing tendencies is, however, more complex and paradoxical than might at first glance appear. As Sebald warily reminds us in his essay “A Little Excursion to Ajaccio,” despite our wishes to inhabit periods of complete freedom, where we follow our distractions to the fullest possible extent, we nonetheless “must all have some more or less significant design in view” (Sebald, Campo 4). It is not so much that we must choose, absolutely, between form and formlessness. Rather, the point is to understand that some seemingly inevitable forms are in fact subject to contingencies, which certain uses deliberately or ignorantly mask, and that simplicity and intricacy are often co-dependent. Richard T. Gray is a Sebald critic who has picked up on the element in Sebald’s work that suggests a tension between different forms of organisation. In his article “Writing at the Roche Limit,” Gray notes that Sebald’s tendency to emphasise the decadent aspects of human and natural history “is continually counterbalanced by an insistence on order and by often extremely subtle forms of organization” (40). Rather than advancing the thesis that Sebald is exclusively against the idea of systematisation or order, Gray argues that The Rings of Saturn models in its own textual make-up an alternative approach to the cognitive order(ing) of things, one that seeks to counter the natural tendency toward entropic decline and a fall into chaos by introducing constructive forces that inject a modicum of balance and equilibrium into the system as a whole. (Gray 41)Sebald’s concern with the contrasting energies exemplified by different forms extends to his play with syntactical and non-syntactical forms of writing. He uses lists to add contrast to his flowing, syntactically intricate sentences. The achievement of his work is not the exclusive privileging of either the list form or the well-composed sentence, but in providing contexts whereby the reader can appreciate subtle modulations between the two, thus experiencing a more dynamic and complex kind of narrative time. His works exhibit an astute awareness of the fact that different textual devices command different experiences of temporality, and our experience of temporality in good part determines our metaphysics. Here I consider two lists featured in The Rings of Saturn, one from the first chapter, and one from the last. Each shows contrasting tendencies concerning systems of organisation. Both are attributable to the work of Thomas Browne, “who practiced as a doctor in Norwich in the seventeenth century and had left a number of writings that defy all comparison” (Sebald, Rings 9). The Rings of Saturn is in part a dialogue across epochs with the sentiments expressed in Browne’s works, which, according to Bianca Theisen, preserve a kind of reasoning that is lost in “the rationalist and scientific embrace of a devalued world of facts” (Theisen 563).The first list names the varied “animate and inanimate matter” in which Browne identifies the quincuncial structure, a lattice like arrangement of five points and intersecting lines. The following phenomena are enumerated in the text:certain crystalline forms, in starfish and sea urchins, in the vertebrae of mammals and the backbones of birds and fish, in the skins of various species of snake, in the crosswise prints left by quadrupeds, in the physical shapes of caterpillars, butterflies, silkworms and moths, in the root of the water fern, in the seed husks of the sunflower and the Caledonian pine, within young oak shoots or the stem of the horse tail; and in the creations of mankind, in the pyramids of Egypt and the mausoleum of Augustus as in the garden of King Solomon, which was planted with mathematical precision with pomegranate trees and white lilies. (Sebald, Rings 20-21)Ostensibly quoting from Browne, Sebald begins the next sentence, “Examples might be multiplied without end” (21). The compulsion to list, or the compulsiveness expressed by listing, is expressed here in a relationship of dual utility with another, dominant or overt, kind of organisational form: the quincunx. It is not the utility or expressiveness of the list itself that is at issue—at least in the version of Browne’s work preserved here by Sebald. In W. G. Sebald: Image, Archive, Modernity, Long notes the historical correspondences and divergences between Sebald and Michel Foucault (2007). Long interprets Browne’s quincunx as exemplifying a “hermeneutics of resemblance,” whereby similarities among diverse phenomena are seen as providing proof of “the universal oneness of all things” (33). This contrasts with the idea of a “pathological nature, autonomous from God,” which, according to Long, informs Sebald’s transformation of Browne into “an avatar of distinctly modern epistemology” (38). Long follows Foucault in noting the distinction between Renaissance and modern epistemology, a distinction in good part due to the experimental, inductive method, the availability of statistical data, and probabilistic reasoning championed in the latter epoch (Whitehead; Hacking). In the book’s final chapter, Sebald includes a list from Browne’s imaginary library, the “Musæum Clausium.” In contrast to the above list, here Sebald seems to deliberately problematise any efforts to suggest an abstract uniting principle. There is no evident reason for the togetherness of the discrete things, beyond the mere fact that they happen to be gathered, hypothetically, in the text (Sebald, Rings 271-273). Among the library’s supposed contents are:an account by the ancient traveller Pytheas of Marseilles, referred to in Strabo, according to which all the air beyond thule is thick, condensed and gellied, looking just like sea lungs […] a dream image showing a prairie or sea meadow at the bottom of the Mediterranean, off the coat of Provence […] and a glass of spirits made of æthereal salt, hermetically sealed up, of so volatile a nature that it will not endure by daylight, and therefore shown only in winter or by the light of a carbuncle or Bononian stone. (Sebald, Rings 272-73)Unlike the previous example attributed to Browne, here the list coheres according to the tensions of its own coincidences. Sebald uses the list to create spontaneous organisations in which history is exhibited as a complex mix of fact and fantasy. More important than the distinction between the imaginary and the real is the effort to account for the way things uniquely incorporate aspects of the world in order to be what they are. Human knowledge is a perspective that is implicated in, rather than excluded from, this process.Lists move us to puzzle over the criteria that their togetherness implies. They might be used inthe service of a specific paradigm, or they might suggest an imaginable but as yet unknown kind of systematisation; a specific kind of relationship, or simply the possibility of a relationship. Take, for example, the list-like accumulation of architectural details in the following description of the decadent Sommerleyton Hall, featured in chapter II: There were drawing rooms and winter gardens, spacious halls and verandas. A corridor might end in a ferny grotto where fountains ceaselessly plashed, and bowered passages criss-crossed beneath the dome of a fantastic mosque. Windows could be lowered to open the interior onto the outside, and inside the landscape was replicated on the mirror walls. Palm houses and orangeries, the lawn like green velvet, the baize on the billiard tables, the bouquets of flowers in the morning and retiring rooms and in the majolica vases on the terrace, the birds of paradise and the golden peasants on the silken tapestries, the goldfinches in the aviaries and the nightingales in the garden, the arabesques in the carpets and the box-edged flower beds—all of it interacted in such a way that one had the illusion of complete harmony between the natural and the manufactured. (Sebald, Rings 33-34)This list shifts emphasis away from preconceived distinctions between the natural and the manufactured through the creation of its own unlikely harmony. It tells us something important about the way perception and knowledge is ordered in Sebald’s prose. Each encounter, or historically specific situation, is considered as though it were its own microworld, its own discrete, synecdochic realisation of history. Rather than starting from the universal or the meta-level and scaling down to the local, Sebald arranges historically peculiar examples that suggest a variable, contrasting and dynamic metaphysics, a motley arrangement of ordering systems that each aspire to but do not command universal applicability. In a comparable sense, Browne’s sepulchral urns of his 1658 work Urn Burial, which feature in chapter I, are time capsules that seem to create their own internally specific kind of organisation:The cremated remains in the urns are examined closely: the ash, the loose teeth, some long roots of quitch, or dog’s grass wreathed about the bones, and the coin intended for the Elysian ferryman. Browne records other objects known to have been placed with the dead, whether as ornament or utensil. His catalogue includes a variety of curiosities: the circumcision knives of Joshua, the ring which belonged to the mistress of Propertius, an ape of agate, a grasshopper, three-hundred golden bees, a blue opal, silver belt buckles and clasps, combs, iron pins, brass plates and brazen nippers to pull away hair, and a brass Jews harp that last sounded on the crossing over black water. (Sebald, Rings 25-26)Regardless of our beliefs concerning the afterlife, these items, preserved across epochs, solicit a sense of wonder as we consider what we might choose for company on our “last journey” (25). In death, the human body is reduced to a condition of an object or thing, while the objects that accompany the corpse seem to acquire a degree of potency as remnants that transcend living time. Life is no longer the paradigm through which to understand purpose. In their very difference from living things these objects command our fascination. Eric Santner coins the term “undeadness” to name the significance of this non-living agency in Sebald’s prose (Santner xx). Santner’s study places Sebald in a linage of German-Jewish writers, including Walter Benjamin, Franz Kafka, and Paul Celan, whose understanding of “the human” depends crucially on the concept of “the creature” or “creatureliness” (Santner 38-41). Like the list of items contained within Sommerleyton Hall, the above list accounts for a context in which ornament and utensil, nature and culture, are read according to their differentiated togetherness, rather than opposition. Death, it seems, is a universal leveller, or at least a different dimension in which symbol and function appear to coincide. Perhaps it is the unassuming and convenient nature of lists that make them enduring objects of historical interest. Lists are a form of writing to which we appeal for immediate mnemonic assistance. They lack the artifice of a sentence. While perhaps not as interesting in the present that is contemporary with their usefulness (a trip to the supermarket), with time lists acquire credibility due to the intimacy they share with mundane, diurnal concerns—due to the fact that they were, once upon a time, so useful. The significance of lists arrives anachronistically, when we look back and wonder what people were really up to, or what our own concerns were, relatively free from fanciful, stylistic adornment. Sebald’s democratic approach to different forms of writing means that lists sit alongside the esteemed poetic and literary efforts of Joseph Conrad, Algernon Swinburne, Edward Fitzgerald, and François René de Chateaubriand, all of whom feature in The Rings of Saturn. His books make the exclusive differences between literary and non-literary kinds of writing less important than the sense of dynamism that is elicited through a play of contrasting kinds of syntactical and non-syntactical writing. The book’s closing chapter includes a revealing example that expresses these sentiments. After tracing over a natural history of silk, with a particular focus on human greed and naivety, the narrative arrives at a “pattern book” that features strips of colourful silk kept in “the small museum of Strangers Hall” (Sebald, Rings 283). The narrator notes that the silks arranged in this book “were of a truly fabulous variety, and of an iridescent, quite indescribable beauty as if they had been produced by Nature itself, like the plumage of birds” (283). This effervescent declamation continues after a double page photograph of the pattern book, which is described as a “catalogue of samples” and “leaves from the only true book which none of our textual and pictorial works can even begin to rival” (286). Here we witness Sebald’s inclusive and variable understanding as to the kinds of thing a book, and writing, can be. The fraying strips of silk featured in the photograph are arranged one below the other, in the form of a list. They are surrounded by ornate handwriting that, like the strips of silk, seems to fray at the edges, suggesting the specific gestural event that occasioned the moment of their inscription—something which tends to be excluded in printed prose. Sebald’s remarks here are not without a characteristic irony (“the only true book”). However, in the greatercontext of the narrative, this comment suggests an important inclination. Namely, that there is much scope yet for innovative literary forms that capture the nuances and complexity of collective and individual histories. And that writing always includes, though to varying degrees obscures, contrasting tensions shared among syntactical and non-syntactical elements, including material and gestural contingencies. Sebald’s works remind us of what potentials might lay ahead for books if the question of what writing can be is asked continually as part of a writer’s enterprise.ReferencesBere, Carol. “The Book of Memory: W. G. Sebald’s The Emigrants and Austerlitz.” Literary Review, 46.1 (2002): 184-92.Blackler, Deane. Reading W. G. Sebald: Adventure and Disobedience. Rochester, New York: Camden House, 2007. Catling Jo, and Richard Hibbitt, eds. Saturn’s Moons: A W. G. Sebald Handbook. Oxford: Legenda, 2011.Denham, Scott and Mark McCulloh, eds. W. G. Sebald: History, Memory, Trauma. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2006. Fuchs, Anne and J. J. Long, eds. W. G. Sebald and the Writing of History. Würzburg: Königshausen &amp; Neumann, 2007. Goody, Jack. The Logic of Writing and the Organization of Society. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1986. Gray, Richard T. “Writing at the Roche Limit: Order and Entropy in W. G. Sebald’s The Rings of Saturn.” The German Quarterly 83.1 (2010): 38-57. Hacking, Ian. 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