THE UTILIZATION OF A HYDROPHILIC WAXY BINDER IN THE PREPARATION OF ORALLY DISINTEGRATING TABLETS BY MEANS OF TWO DIFFERENT GRANULATION METHODS

Authors

Laboratoire de Pharmacie Galénique et Industrielle, Faculté de Pharmacie de Marseille, 13385 Marseille, cedex 5, France

Abstract

The demand for rapidly disintegrating tablets (RDT) has been growing during the last decade especially for elderly and children who have swallowing difficulties. The problem of certain RDT is their low physical resistance and high friability. This work describes a new approach to prepare RDT with sufficient mechanical integrity, involving the use of a hydrophilic waxy binder (Superpolystate  , PEG-6-stearate). Superpolystate  is a waxy material with a melting point of 33°-37° and an HLB value of 9. So it will not only act as a binder and increase the physical resistance of tablets but it will also help the disintegration of the tablets as it melts in the mouth and solublises rapidly leaving no residues. The incorporation of Superpolystate  in the formulation of RDT was realized by means of two different granulation methods: wet granulation by using an emulsion of this waxy binder as granulating liquid and melt granulation where the molten form of the binder was used. Granule size distributions of both wet and melt granulates of crystallised Paracetamol and D-mannitol were compared using laser light diffractometer. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to examine their morphological characteristics. The potential of the intragranular addition of croscarmellose as a disintegrating agent was also evaluated. The subsequent step encompassed the preparation and the evaluation of the tablets, including the effect of the extragranular introduction of croscarmellose. An improvement in tablet hardness and friability was observed with both granulation methods where we were able to obtain RDT with a disintegration time of 40  2 s and a hardness of 47.9  2.5 N.