Tabletting characteristics of the selected Malaysian herbs

Abstract

This work describes a study of tabletting of selected Malaysian herbs such as Eurycoma longifolia Jack, Ficus deltoidea and Morinda citrifolia. These herbs are famous for their therapeutic properties and are used as herbal medicine or as medicinal food. A cylindrical uniaxial die of 13 mm was used to compress the herb powders into tablets. Pressures ranging from 7.5 MPa to 75 MPa were applied using a universal testing machine. Two feed weights, 0.5 g and 1.0 g, were used to produce the tablets. A binder, the microcrystalline cellulose known as Avicel, was used to investigate its effect on tabletting. Properties associated with both the binder and the compounds were studied, and binary mixtures with compositions ranging from 10% to 60% were examined. The strength of the herb tablets was then tested using an indirect tensile strength test. Upon compression, the Morinda citrifolia powder showed the highest density compared to that of Avicel. However, due to its high elasticity, the tensile strength of the Morinda citrifolia tablet was the lowest. The experimental data were also verified using an established model for compression property development. The results indicated that this simple approach can be used to understand the tabletting characteristics of these herbs.