Lubricants and there use in pharmaceuticals.
By the end of article we will be able to differentiate between Lubricants, Gladients and Anti-adherents understand the basic difference between them and which one to use when we encounter the problem during production process as these are commonly used in tablet and capsule dosage forms.
Lubricants.
Role of lubricants in pharmaceutical formulation is to minimize the friction between two sliding surfaces.
Mainly friction between surfaces is needed to be reduced during ejection of tablets from compression machine and to overcome the die wall interaction forces after compression. example of lubricant is Magnesium stearate.
Concentration of lubricants in batch shall be 0.5 – 1%.
Anti-adherents.
Role of anti-adherents is to prevent the sticking of tablet to punch surface during compression and sticking of blend to tamping pins of capsule filling machines. example Talcum.
Concentration of Antiadherants in batch shall be 1-5%
Gladients.
Major role of gladients is to improve the flow of blend . we can encounter gladient issue when the flow of blend is not proper in hopper of tablet compression machine or capsule filling machine example Colloidal silica or Aerosil.
Concentration of Gladients in batch shall be greater than 1%.
Properties of Lubricants, Gladients and Anti-adherents
- Talcum,Magnesium stearate and Aerosil also possess properties of each other lesser extent therefore they are used in combination during batch manufacturing process.
- All of these are water repellent in nature .
- Lubricants tend to interfere with tablet bonds and cause tablet softening.
- Excessive amount of lubricants will increase the dissolution and disintegration time due to hydrophobic nature.
- Water soluble lubricants are also available like sodium benzoate but they are not as effective as standard ones.
- Lubricants are laminar in structure and sensitive to mixing on excessive mixing they tend to De laminate and act like excessive amount is added to blend therefore increasing Dissolution and Disintegration.