Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Evaluation of a Weakly Cationic Exchange Poly (Methacrylic Acid-Co-Divinylbenzene) Resin as Filler-Binder for Direct Compression Tablets

Prasert Akkaramongkolporn , Tanasait Ngawhirunpat, Praneet Opanasopit

Faculty of Pharmacy, Silpakorn University, Nakhon Pathom 73000, Thailand;

For correspondence:- Prasert Akkaramongkolporn Email: prasert@su.ac.th Tel:+6634255800

Received: 31 August 2011 Accepted: 13 March 2012 Published: 15 June 2012

Citation: Akkaramongkolporn P, Ngawhirunpat T, Opanasopit P. Evaluation of a Weakly Cationic Exchange Poly (Methacrylic Acid-Co-Divinylbenzene) Resin as Filler-Binder for Direct Compression Tablets. Trop J Pharm Res 2012; 11(3):371-378 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v11i3.5

© 2012 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate a weakly cationic exchange poly(methacrylic acid-co-divinylbenzene) resin (PMD) as a new filler-binder for direct compression tablets.

Methods: Powder properties of PMD and MCC were characterized. Tablets made from PMD and MCC with and without propranolol hydrochloride were evaluated for diameter, thickness, friability, assay, disintegration, dissolution and compression behavior.

Results: Tablets made from PMD (thickness: 3.54 - 4.46 mm) were thicker than those of MCC (2.93 - 3.33 mm). At compression pressures ≥ 309 MPa, the crushing strength of PMD tablets was so high that it exceeded the capacity of the tester (500 N). PMD tablets rapidly disintegrated (0.43 - 9.56 min), but MCC tablets did not disintegrate within 60 min. The crushing strength of PMD tablets containing 10 and 100 mg propranolol hydrochloride was 406.1 and 177.9 N, respectively, which were lower than that of tablets without the drug. Tablets made from PMD also exhibited faster drug dissolution. The slopes of the linear portions of Heckel plots for PMD and MCC were comparable (5.02×10^-3 and 5.12×10^-3 MPa^-1), respectively.

Conclusion: PMD has good compressibility at high compression pressures, which should make it a suitable filler-binder for direct compression tablets.

Keywords: Poly(methacrylic acid-co-divinylbenzene), Microcrystalline cellulose, Filler-binder, Direct compression tablet, Heckel plots