Tensile strength and compression of coated pharmaceutical powders: tablets

Process and formulation parameters influencing the survival of Saccharomyces cerevisiae during spray drying and tableting

Probiotic microorganisms provide health benefits to the patient when administered in a viable form and in sufficient doses. To ensure this, dry dosage forms are preferred, with tablets in particular being favored due to several advantages. However, the microorganisms must first be dried as gently as possible. Here, the model organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae was dried by spray drying. Various additives were tested for their ability to improve yeast cell survival during drying. In addition, the influence of various process parameters such as inlet temperature, outlet temperature, spray rate, spray pressure and nozzle diameter was investigated. It was possible to dry the yeast cells in such a way that a substantial proportion of living microorganisms was recovered after reconstitution. Systematic variation of formulation and process parameters showed that the use of protective additives is essential and that the outlet temperature determines the survival rate. The subsequent compression of the spray-dried yeast reduced viability and survival could hardly be improved by the addition of excipients, but the tabletability of spray-dried yeast protectant particles was quite good. For the first time, loss of viability during compaction of spray-dried microorganisms was correlated with the specific densification, allowing a deeper understanding of the mechanism of cell inactivation during tableting.

Tableting of Fluidized Bed Granules Containing Living Microorganisms

Tablets are the favored dosage form for numerous active pharmaceutical ingredients, among others because they are easy to take, ensure safe dosing and allow cost-effective production on a large scale. This dosage form is also frequently chosen for the administration of viable probiotic microorganisms. Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells granulated in a fluidized bed process, with dicalcium phosphate (DCP), lactose (LAC) and microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) as carrier materials, were tableted using a compaction simulator, varying the compression stress. The tablets were analyzed regarding physical properties, e.g., porosity and tensile strength, as well as microbial survival. Carrier material and compression stress showed a significant influence on survival rate and physical tablet properties. The dependencies were related to material specific deformation characteristics and linked to mechanistic approaches to explain the different sensitivities.

Along the Process Chain to Probiotic Tablets: Evaluation of Mechanical Impacts on Microbial Viability

Today, probiotics are predominantly used in liquid or semi-solid functionalized foods, showing a rapid loss of cell viability. Due to the increasing spread of antibiotic resistance, probiotics are promising in pharmaceutical development because of their antimicrobial effects. This increases the formulation requirements, e.g., the need for an enhanced shelf life that is achieved by drying, mainly by lyophilization. For oral administration, the process chain for production of tablets containing microorganisms is of high interest and, thus, was investigated in this study. Lyophilization as an initial process step showed low cell survival of only 12.8%. However, the addition of cryoprotectants enabled survival rates up to 42.9%. Subsequently, the dried cells were gently milled. This powder was tableted directly or after mixing with excipients microcrystalline cellulose, dicalcium phosphate or lactose. Survival rates during tableting varied between 1.4% and 24.1%, depending on the formulation and the applied compaction stress. More detailed analysis of the tablet properties showed advantages of excipients in respect of cell survival and tablet mechanical strength. Maximum overall survival rate along the complete manufacturing process was >5%, enabling doses of 6 × 108 colony forming units per gram (CFU gtotal−1), including cryoprotectants and excipients.

Microparticle surface layering through dry coating: impact of moisture content and process parameters on the properties of orally disintegrating tablets

Objectives

The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of process parameters during dry coating on particle and dosage form properties upon varying the surface adsorbed moisture of microcrystalline cellulose (MCC), a model filler/binder for orally disintegrating tablets (ODTs).

Methods

The moisture content of MCC was optimised using the spray water method and analysed using thermogravimetric analysis. Microproperty/macroproperty assessment was investigated using atomic force microscopy, nano-indentation, scanning electron microscopy, tablet hardness and disintegration testing.

Key findings

The results showed that MCC demonstrated its best flowability at a moisture content of 11.2% w/w when compared to control, comprising of 3.9% w/w moisture. The use of the composite powder coating process (without air) resulted in up to 80% increase in tablet hardness, when compared to the control. The study also demonstrated that surface adsorbed moisture can be displaced upon addition of excipients during dry processing circumventing the need for particle drying before tabletting.

Conclusions

It was concluded that MCC with a moisture content of 11% w/w provides a good balance between powder flowability and favourable ODT characteristics.

Tensile strength and disintegration of tableted silicified microcrystalline cellulose: influences of interparticle bonding

The effects of some material variables (particle size and moisture content) on the tensile strength and disintegration time of tableted standard microcrystalline cellulose (MCC, Avicel) and a silicified brand (SMCC, Prosolv) were studied. Three particle size fractions were employed, after equilibration in three levels of environmental relative humidity (RH%), and the tensile strength and disintegration time were determined at different levels of total tablet porosity or packing fraction (p(f)). The MCC grade or silicification affects the moisture sorption and the packing during tapping as well as the particle deformation (yield pressure, P(y)) during tableting. There was a slight increase in the tensile strength but a marked increase in the disintegration time of Prosolv compared with Avicel in the p(f) range 0.7-0.9, which corresponds the range for pharmaceutical tablets. These increases are explained in terms of the range and magnitude of the interparticle forces developed and the interparticle separation. Despite the higher moisture content of Prosolv after equilibration compared with Avicel, compression of Prosolv results in higher P(y), in tablets of higher energy of interparticle bonding, longer interparticle separation, and extended disintegration compared with Avicel. The incorporated SiO(2) is thought to play the role of barrier or sink for the moisture sorbed, but only for RH up to 52%, which is a moisture content range less than twice that of tightly bound water. At higher RH (72%), the incorporated SiO(2) does not increase the P(y), but reduces the energy of interparticle bonding and the interparticle separation because of its probable saturation. The latter, in turn, results in more extended disintegration times due to reduced uptake of water into the tablets and to the probable reduction of water available for the deployment of the microcrystalline cellulose activity as disintegrant.

Studies on the interaction between water and (hydroxypropyl)methylcellulose

The moisture sorption and desorption profiles of four different viscosity grades of (hydroxypropyl)methylcellulose (HPMC) 2208 (HPMC K100, HPMC K4M, HPMC K15M, and HPMC K100M) of different particle size fractions were analyzed according to the Young and Nelson equations. These equations describe three locations of the sorbed moisture: monolayer adsorption, externally adsorbed moisture, and internally absorbed moisture. The effects of particle size and viscosity grade of HPMC on the three locations of moisture showed that an increase in particle size generally resulted in a reduction in the amount of internal absorption and an increase in the amount of external adsorption. These changes were more apparent for HPMC K100 and HPMC K4M than for the higher viscosity grades. The lowest values of internally absorbed moisture were obtained for HPMC K100M. Changes in tensile strengths, mean yield pressures, and elastic recoveries of HPMC K4M tablets were explained in terms of the changes produced in the internally absorbed moisture and the externally adsorbed moisture. The amounts of nonfreezing and freezing water in samples exposed to moisture were determined from melting endotherms obtained by differential scanning calorimetry. Increases in the water:HPMC ratio resulted in increases in the enthalpies of water melting for the four viscosity grades of HPMC for the < 45 and 250-350 microns particle size fractions. The amount of nonfreezable water was unaffected by change in viscosity grade or particle size.

The influence of moisture content on the consolidation properties of hydroxypropylmethylcellulose K4M (HPMC 2208)

The effect of moisture content, compression speed and compression force on the compaction properties of HPMC K4M has been evaluated. As the moisture content increased from 0 to 14.9% w/w, the thickness of HPMC K4M compacts increased at constant compression force and speed. This increase in moisture content also resulted in a marked increase in the tensile strength of the tablets. At a speed of 15 mm s-1 and force of 10 kN, as the moisture content increased from 0 to 14.9% w/w, the tensile strengths increased from 1.34 to 8.54 Mpa. Equivalent tensile strengths could be obtained with less compression force as the moisture content in the polymer was increased. Increasing the compression speed generally decreased the tensile strength of HPMC K4M tablets. The dependence of tablet porosity and tensile strength on compression speeds showed that HPMC K4M is consolidated by plastic deformation. At all compression speeds, an increase in moisture content reduced the percentage elastic recovery of HPMC compacts due to greater tablet consolidation. The lowest elastic recovery (1.18%) was found for tablets made at 15 mm s-1 and 5 kN, containing 14.9% w/w moisture content.

Moisture sorption profiles and tensile strength of tableted phenobarbitone formulations

The tensile strength of tablets made from phenobarbitone and sodium phenobarbitone formulations after storage at increasing ambient relative humidity has been investigated. The moisture sorption and desorption profiles of the formulations were analysed for three locations of moisture: monolayer adsorbed moisture, normally condensed moisture and absorbed moisture. Maxima in tensile strength occur at moisture distributions determined by the disintegrant used. The changes in tensile strength have been explained in terms of changes produced in the interparticle separation, the range of the interparticle forces and changes in the ratio of the binding to diffusional forces, acting on the water molecules which are on the particles' surface.

The plasto-elasticity and compressibility of coated powders and the tensile strengths of their tablets

A study has been made of the effects produced on the tensile strength, brittle fracture index (BFI), 'plasto-elasticity' ratio, ER/PC, and yield pressure (1/KH derived from Heckel plots) of sodium salicylate and calcium carbonate as a result of coating their particles with increasing amounts of silicones and polysorbates before subjecting them to compression to form tablets. The coatings act as lubricants reducing bond formation due to plastic deformation of particles. They caused a reduction in the tensile strengths and yield pressures of the tablets but increased their BFI values and their ER/PC ratios. Tablets of calcium carbonate tended to cap or laminate when their BFI value was greater than 0.7 and their ER/PC ratio was greater than 7. Sodium salicylate whose BFI values were all less than 0.7 produced satisfactory tablets when their ER/PC ratio was less than 10 but tended to cap or laminate when it was greater than 10.