Pharma gyan Pandit

Disintegrants

Disintegrants are agents added to tablet and some encapsulated formulations to promote the breakup of the tablet and capsule “slugs’ into smaller fragments in an aqueous environment there by increasing the available surface area and promoting a more rapid release of the drug substance. Superdisintegrants are generally used at a low level in the solid dosage form, typically 1- 10 % by weight relative to the total weight of the dosage unit. Diverse categories of Superdisintegrants such as synthetic, semi-synthetic, natural and co-processed blends etc. have been employed to develop effective immediate release tablets and to overcome the limitations of conventional tablet dosage form.

They promote moisture penetration and dispersion of the tablet matrix. Tablet disintegration has received considerable attention as an essential step in obtaining fast drug release. The disintegrants have the major function to oppose the efficiency of the tablet binder and the physical forces that act under compression to form the tablet. The stronger the binder, the more effective must be the disintegrating agents in order for the tablet to release its medication. Ideally, it should cause the tablet to disrupt, not only into the granules from which it was compressed, but also into powder particles from which the granulation was prepared. Most common tablets are those intended to be swallowed whole and to disintegrate and release their medicaments rapidly in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT). 

The proper choice of disintegrant and its consistency of performance are of critical importance to the formulation development of such tablets. In more recent years, increasing attention has been paid to formulating not only fast dissolving and/or disintegrating tablets that are swallowed, but also orally disintegrating tablets that are intended to dissolve and/or disintegrate rapidly in the mouth. Most prior studies have focused on the function related properties of superdisintegrants with special emphasis on correlating these functional properties to disintegrant efficiency and drug release rate.