Tablets

• Compressed tablets are oral dosage forms usually prepared with the aid of pharmaceutical excipients by compression or molding.
• Advantages of compressed tablets to the manufacturer include simplicity and economy in fabrication, stability, and convenience in dispensing and shipping.
• Advantages of compressed tablets to the consumer include accuracy and compactness in dosage, portability, and blandness of taste.
• Provide aesthetics or distinction to the product
• Provide special characteristics of drug release
• Film Coating
• Enteric Coating
• Protect the medicinal agent against destructive exposure to air or humidity
• Sugar Coating
• Mask the taste of drugs
• Classes of compressed tablets include multiple compressed tablets, layered tablets, and sugar-coated tablets.
• Compressed tablets can also be film-coated, gelatin-coated, or enteric-coated.
• Buccal and sublingual tablets are flat and oval tablets intended to be dissolved in the buccal pouch and beneath the tongue for absorption through the oral mucosa.
• Chewable tablets are compressed tablets which have a smooth, rapid disintegration when chewed or allowed to dissolve in the mouth.
• Effervescent tablets are compressed tablets prepared by compressing granular effervescent salts that release gas when in contact with water.
• Molded tablets include tablet triturates and hypodermic tablets.
• Fillers make up the major portion or bulk of the tablet and examples include Lactose, microcrystalline cellulose, starch, powdered sucrose, calcium phosphate.
• Disintegrants are materials that swell or expand on exposure to moisture and effect the rupture or break-up of the tablet in the GIT and examples include Croscarmellose, Sodium starch glycolate, Corn and potato starches, Sodium carboxymethylcellulose, Polyvinyl pyrolidone, Crospovidone, Cation-exchange resins, Alginic acid.
• Tablet coating is a common step in tablet manufacturing.
• Fillers used in tablet manufacturing include Lactose, Microcrystals of alpha-monohydrate lactose, Sucrose-invert sugar cornstarch mixture, Microcrystalline cellulose, Crystalline maltose, Dicalcium phosphate.
• Disintegrants used in tablet manufacturing include Starch, Sodium carboxymethylcellulose, Cross-linked CMC fibers, Cross-linked PVP.
• Microcrystalline cellulose is a lubricant used in tablet manufacturing.
• Carxymethylcellulose is a lubricant used in tablet manufacturing.
• Direct compression is a useful method for preparing tablets whose ingredients have inherent free-flowing and cohesive properties.
• Dry Granulation is useful for preparing tablets of drugs that are degraded by moisture and elevated temperature required for drying with procedures including Weighing, Blending, Slugging, Dry screening, Lubrication, and Compression.
• Glidants used in tablet manufacturing include Fumed silicon dioxide.
• Lubricants used in tablet manufacturing include Magnesium stearate, Talc.
• Agents that improve flow properties of granulation, prevent tablet adhesion to dies and punches, facilitate ejection after compression, and give a sheen to the finished tablet include Magnesium stearate, Calcium stearate, Stearic acid, Talc, Sodium stearyl fumarate.
• Wet Granulation is a widely employed method of preparing compressed tablets with procedures including Weighing, Blending, Preparation of damp mass, Wet screening, Drying, Dry screening, Lubrication, and Compression.
• Binders contribute to the adhesion of the granules to one another and maintain the integrity of the tablet after compression and examples include Povidone, Aqueous starch, Glucose solution, Molasses, Methyl cell.
• Thickness is measured by a micrometer or Vernier caliper.
• Tablets affected by light are packed in light-resistant containers.
• Tablets are stored in tight containers, in places of low humidity and protected from extremes of temperature.
• Friability is a test that induces self abrasion of the tablets placed in a cylinder.
• Diameter is measured by a micrometer or Vernier caliper.
• Chipping or Peeling is characterized by the breakage of tablet edges, resulting in small chips or fragments.
• Disintegration time refers to the time it takes for a tablet to reach a state in which any residue of the tablet remains on the screen, resulting to a soft mass with no palpably visible core.
• Lamination occurs when tablets split into layers or laminates, either partially or completely.
• Inconsistent Thickness refers to variations in the tablet thickness within a batch or across different tablets.
• Capping refers to the partial or complete separation of a tablet's crown or upper portion from the main body.