Effect of Hydrophobic Excipients on the Properties of Fast Disintegrating Tablets

Abstract

Highly hydrophobic lubricants including magnesium stearate may hinder water penetration into the tablet core resulting in delayed disintegration of fast disintegrating tablets. Alternative lubricants with equivalent lubricating properties may need to be incorporated into the tablet formulations. Sodium stearyl fumarate, glyceryl behenate and polyethylene glycol were evaluated regarding the tablet ejection energy, mechanical strength and disintegration time using Texture analyzer (TA). Resulting tablets were also compared with different particle sizes of granules and various compression forces. Among the tested lubricants, sodium stearyl fumarate was less sensitive to mixing time and also showed better or competitive tablet properties. During the experiments, TA was found to be very useful tool to investigate the tablet properties.