Influences of different microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) grades on tablet quality and compression behavior of MCC-lactose binary mixtures

Abstract

Microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) is one of the most commonly used excipients in tablet formulations. At present, numerous grades of MCC are available for pharmaceutical manufacturing and significantly differ in particulate and powder properties. The choice of MCC is important to the development of a tablet formulation with satisfactory quality. In this paper, five commercial grades of MCC from the same manufacturer were systematically evaluated by combination with lactose to investigate their influences on tablet quality. Furthermore, the key compression parameters obtained from empirical compression equations were used to analyze the compression behavior of the tablet formulations. When the proportion of MCC was up to ∼50%, PH 102, PH 102SCG, and PH 112 showed good and similar abilities in improving tablet tensile strength followed by PH 200, and PH 302 did the weakest. All the MCC successfully decreased the tablet friability and disintegration time values. The improvement effect of MCC on tablet disintegration followed the descending order: PH 200 > PH 102SCG > PH 302 > PH 102 > PH 112. Besides, the different effects of MCC grades on tablet quality could be weakened by lubricants when the mixtures mainly underwent plastic deformation during compression process. In conclusion, a clear understanding of the influences of commonly used grades of MCC on tablet quality is critical for future tablet formulation efforts.