Acta Pharm. 59 (2009) 25-38

 

full paper

Original research paper

 

Effect of drug content and agglomerate size on tabletability and drug release characteristics of bromhexine hydrochloride-talc agglomerates prepared by crystallo-co-agglomeration

NAMDEO JADHAV, ATMARAM PAWAR and ANANT PARADKAR

arparadkar@rediffmail.com

1 Department of Pharmaceutics, Bharati Vidyapeeth College of Pharmacy, Kolhapur-416013, Maharashtra State, India Croatia

2 Department of Pharmaceutics, Poona College of Pharmacy, Bharati Vidyapeeth University, Erandwane, Pune-411038, Maharashtra State, India

3 Institute of Pharmaceutical Innovation, University of Bradford, Bradford, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom, BD7 1DP

Accepted December 31, 2009

 

The objective of the investigation was to study the effect of bromhexine hydrochloride (BXH) content and agglomerate size on mechanical, compressional and drug release properties of agglomerates prepared by crystallo-co-agglomeration (CCA). Studies on optimized batches of agglomerates (BXT1 and BXT2) prepared by CCA have showed adequate sphericity and strength required for efficient tabletting. Trend of strength reduction with a decrease in the size of agglomerates was noted for both batches, irrespective of drug loading. However, an increase in mean yield pressure (14.189 to 19.481) with an increase in size was observed for BXT2 having BXH-talc (1:15.7). Surprisingly, improvement in tensile strength was demonstrated by compacts prepared from BXT2, due to high BXH load, whereas BXT1, having a low amount of BXH (BXH-talc, 1:24), showed low tensile strength. Consequently, increased tensile strength was reflected in extended drug release from BXT2 compacts (Higuchi model, R2 = 0.9506 to 0.9981). Thus, it can be concluded that interparticulate bridges formed by BXH and agglomerate size affect their mechanical, compressional and drug release properties.

 

Keywords: crystallo-co-agglomeration, agglomerate size, drug content, compression, extended release