Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research | ||||||||||||||
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Relationship Between Slugging Pressure and Brittle Fracture Tendency – A Case Study for Aspirin Tablets FE Eichie*,
RS Okor, MU Uhumwangho and IY Osakue
Department of Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Technology, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria
Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research 2005; 4(2): 483-487 ISSN: 1596-5996
Abstract Objective
– Slugging is a pre-compression technique for the dry granulation of
hydrolysable drugs (e.g. aspirin). The study was carried out to relate the
slugging load to the hardness of the granules and the brittle fracture tendency
of the final (recompressed) tablets. Method
– Varying compression load were applied to aspirin powder to form slugs,
which were subsequently broken down to form granules. These were recompressed to
give the final tablets. The hardness of the slugs was determined and taken as
measure of the hardness of the resulting granules. The following tableting
parameters were measured for the final tablets - tensile strength (T), packing
fraction (Pf) and the brittle fracture index (BFI). Results
- A high slugging load was associated with the formation of hard slugs
and hence hard granules. Upon recompression the hardest granules formed the
hardest tablets (T = 3.29MN m-2) while the softest granules formed
the softest tablets (T=1.09MN m-2). In turn, the hardest tablets
displayed the highest brittle fracture tendency (BFI = 0.59) compared with the
softest tablets (BFI= 0.21). A positive linear correlation existed between
tablet hardness (T) and BFI values (r = 0.98). Conclusion
– The study showed that excessive slugging load produces hard aspirin
granules which in turn yields hard but friable tablets. To whom correspondence should be addressed: E-mail: eichie@uniben.edu
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Last updated: August 30, 2006 |