343FORMULATION AND EVALUATION OF SUSTAINED RELEASE MATRIX TABLETS OF GLUCOSAMINE HYDROCHLORIDENow a day’s most of the prescription arthritic drugs have been removed from the market because of safety concern and even over the counter pain remedies are coming under serious government scrutiny because of the same safety issues. For this reason, Glucosamine is used as a dietary supplement for the treatment of osteoarthritis and is safe to use. As the dose of Glucosamine is high in treatment of arthritis, the practitioner prescribes it twice or thrice daily. So sustained release drug delivery of Glucosamine will be helpful in the treatment of osteoarthritis for patient compliance. The main objective of the present work was to develop sustained release matrix tablets of water soluble glucosamine hydrochloride using different polymers viz. Hydroxy propyl methyl cellulose (HPMC), Ethyl Cellulose (EC), PVP and gums like Gaur gum, Xanthan gum. The formulated tablets were also characterized by physical and chemical parameters. The in–vitro release rate profile data was satisfactory. Dissolution data was analyzed by Korsmeyer-Peppas power law expression and modified power law expressionmahija83@gmail.comResearch4122013Glucosamine,Sustained release drug delivery system,Matrix tablets,HPMCS. Mahendran,N. NarayananResearch Scholar, Karpagam University, Coimbatore, Tamilnadu, India,Jaya college of Pharmacy, Thirunintravur, Chennai, Tamilnadu, India