A COMPARISON STUDY OF GRANULE AND DRY POWDER PROPERTIES OF CO-PROCESSED LACTOSE MONOHYDRATE AND CELLULOSE EXCIPIENTS USING THERMAL AND RHEOLOGICAL TECHNIQUES WITH WATER AS THE BINDER

Poor flow and cohesion are the most common problems encountered during manufacturing of a tablet. Tablets are produced by compression of formulation ingredients including the drug and excipients that improve processing properties of the product. Excipients may include fillers, diluents, binders, lubricants etc. which are added to impart good flow. Cellulose and Lactose have been widely used in Pharmaceutical Industry as a binder and filler due to their property of excellent flowability and stability. The aim of the experiment is to prepare granules of two co-processed excipients of lactose monohydrate and cellulose using water as a binder and compare their flow properties. Although these excipients can be directly compressed, we use wet granulation technique since it allows the material to be compressed with better flow properties. In Wet granulation technique, the particle size, shape and size distribution are optimized with the use of binder that bonds the powder particles together forming spherical granules. In Cuisinart mixer, 700g of powder was mixed with continuous addition of water for 30 seconds with the mixing time of 3 minutes for three different concentrations of water. The wet mass was passed through U.S. Standard sieve # 14 and the granules formed were dried at 60°C in an oven. These dried granules were then characterized for their flow properties and compared to the dry powder used for direct compression. Tests performed confirmed that wet granulation technique not only improved the flow of granules but also gave better compression and permeability characteristics than dry powder alone.