| Abstrakt: |
Direct compression is the preferred method of manufacturing tablets. However, native starch, commonly used as disintegrant, binder and/or filler, tends to possess poor intrinsic compressibility. This makes it less suitable as a direct compression ingredient. With physical and chemical modifications, key physical properties of native starch may be altered, enabling the extension of its utility. Breadfruit provides a cheap source of high quality native starch. Controlled heating at 65 °C was applied to an aqueous suspension of native breadfruit starch (NBS) to produce pregelatinized breadfruit starch (PBS). The fundamental and derived properties as well as compactibility of PBS were evaluated with metronidazole, a drug of poor inherent compressibility, as a model drug active ingredient. The crushing strength, friability, disintegration time and dissolution profiles of metronidazole tablets were used to assess the effect of PBS as a direct compression binder at 20% concentration. Significant (p<0.05) differences between the fundamental and derived properties of NBS and PBS were observed. Further, the compression characteristics of NBS, PBS, native corn starch (NCS) and commercial pregelatinized starch (CPS) were compared by assessing the crushing strength of their compacts compressed from 9.8 to 39.2 kN. Compact hardness increased in the order NCS
|
