The tensile strength and disintegration of griseofulvin tablets

Abstract

A study has been made of the tensile strengths of tablets made from the individual ingredients and from binary, ternary and quarternary mixtures of the ingredients of a typical griseofulvin formulation using diametral compression tests. An equation is given for calculating the tensile strengths of the multicomponent tablets with a mean accuracy of ±5%. The tensile strengths and disintegration times of the tablets increase with polyvinylpyrrolidone content. The disintegration times exhibit minima at packing fractions between 0.76 and 0.82 and an explanation is given. Increasing the content of calcium carboxymethyl cellulose and maize starch also causes an increase in tensile strength but a decrease in disintegration time. The tablets made in a hand press have higher tensile strengths and longer disintegration times than those made at the same packing fraction in a single punch or in a rotary tablet machine. This is attributed to differences in the compression times involved. There appears to be a correlation between tensile strength and disintegration time of the tablets over a range of packing fractions.