Crystallo-co-spray drying as a new approach to manufacturing of drug/excipient agglomerates: Impact of processing on the properties of paracetamol and lactose mixtures

Lactose in tablets: Functionality, critical material attributes, applications, modifications and co-processed excipients

Lactose is one of the most widespread excipients used in the pharmaceutical industry. Because of its water solubility and acceptable flowability, lactose is generally added into tablet formulation to improve wettability and undesirable flowability. Based on Quality by Design, a better understanding of the critical material attributes (CMAs) of raw materials is beneficial in guiding the improvement of tablet quality and the development of lactose. Additionally, the modifications and co-processing of lactose can introduce more-desirable characteristics to the resulting particles. This review focuses on the functionality, CMAs, applications, modifications and co-processing of lactose in tablets.

Preparation and Evaluation of Silymarin-Loaded Solid Eutectic for Enhanced Anti-Inflammatory, Hepatoprotective Effect: In Vitro-In Vivo Prospect

Solubility of phytochemicals is a major concern for drug delivery, permeability, and their biological response. However, advancements in the novel formulation technologies have been helping to overcome these challenges. The applications of these newer technologies are easy for commercialization and high therapeutic outcomes compared to conventional formulations. Considering these facts, the present study is aimed to prepare a silymarin-loaded eutectic mixture with three different ratios of Polyvinylpyrrolidone K30 (PVP K30) and evaluating their anti-inflammatory, and hepatoprotective effects. The preliminary phytochemical and characterization of silymarin, physical mixture, and solid dispersions suggested and successfully confirmed the formation of solid dispersion of silymarin with PVP K30. It was found that the solubility of silymarin was increased by 5-fold compared to pure silymarin. Moreover, the in vitro dissolution displayed that 83% of silymarin released within 2 h with 2.8-fold increase in dissolution rate compared to pure silymarin. Also, the in vivo study suggested that the formulation significantly reduced the carbon tetrachloride- (0.8620 ± 0.05034^∗∗ for 1 : 3 ratio), paracetamol- (0.7300 ± 0.01517^∗∗ for 1 : 3 ratio), and ethanol- (0.8100 ± 0.04037^∗∗ for 1 : 3 ratio) induced hepatotoxicity in rats. Silymarin solid dispersion was prepared using homogenization methods that have prominent anti-inflammatory effect (0.6520 ± 0.008602^∗∗ with 8.33%) in carrageenan-induced rat paw model.

The Novel Use of PVP K30 as Templating Agent in Production of Porous Lactose

It is necessary to prepare porous lactose in order to improve the dissolution behavior of insoluble active ingredient. In this study, polyvinylpyrrolidone K30 (PVP K30) was firstly utilized as a templating agent with different use levels in preparing porous lactose. Then, the physical properties were profoundly characterized. Finally, the porous lactose was also employed as a health functional food/drug carrier to explore the effect on the dissolution behavior of curcumin. The results confirmed that (i) porous lactose was successfully prepared using PVP K30 as templating agent; (ii) PVP K30 significantly improved the yield of lactose in the spray drying; (iii) the improved powder properties of porous lactose were more conducive to the downstream operating process for the preparation of health functional food or drug; and (iv) the porous lactose significantly improved the dissolution behavior of curcumin. Therefore, the results obtained are beneficial to boosting the development of porous materials.