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). Keywords: Slugging pressure, aspirin granules, tablet tensile strength, brittle fracture index > Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research Vol. 4 (2) 2005: pp. 483-487
Highlights
Slugging is a pre-compression process for the formation of extra large tablets, usually of variable weight, due to poor flow of the drug powder
The present study focuses on the effect of slugging load on the brittle fracture tendency of tablets during recompression of the granules derived from the slugs since excessive compression loads are associated with a high brittle fracture tendency[2]
This study has shown that excessive slugging load yields hard aspirin granules, which in turn produces hard aspirin tablets
Summary
Slugging is a pre-compression process for the formation of extra large tablets (slugs), usually of variable weight, due to poor flow of the drug powder. The resulting slugs are subsequently broken down into granules, which are recompressed to obtain the final tablets. A previous study[1] highlighted the need to control the slugging pressure, as excessive pressure will produce very hard granules that are difficult to deform during the recompression stage resulting in soft tablets. The present study focuses on the effect of slugging load on the brittle fracture tendency of tablets during recompression of the granules derived from the slugs since excessive compression loads are associated with a high brittle fracture tendency[2]. The objective of the present study, is to examine the relationship between slugging load and granule hardness on the one hand and the relationship between tablet hardness and their brittle fracture tendency on the other hand
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