Application of a quality-by-design approach for utilizing sodium stearyl fumarate as a taste-masking agent in dextromethorphan hydrobromide orally disintegrating tablets.

Orally dissolving tablets (ODTs) represent one of the recent advances in drug delivery. The foremost objective of this study was to optimize the utilization of lubricant sodium stearyl fumarate in the preparation of dextromethorphan hydrobromide ODTs with enhanced taste-masking properties. The simple blending of sodium stearyl fumarate with the powder bed would result in taste-masking through physical adsorption of the lubricant particles on the drug particles. A randomized 32 full factorial experimental design was used to characterize the relationship between lubricant ratio (X1), mixing time (X2), and the tablet properties. The tablets were assessed for friability, hardness, disintegration time, and in-vitro dissolution. All tablets showed hardness within the range of 3.0-3.7 kp, and the % loss in friability test was less than 1.1%. The in-vitro disintegration time ranged between 9 and 25 s. An in-vitro drug release study of the prepared ODTs showed that more than 90% of the drug was released within 30 min. A palatability test of the optimized formula conducted in human volunteers showed acceptable taste and mouthfeel with in-vivo disintegration time of 17 s. Thus, results obtained convincingly showed successful fast disintegration of the prepared tablets and acceptable palatability when using sodium stearyl fumarate as a taste masking agent.

Development and optimization of dextromethorphan hydrobromide oral disintegrating tablets: effect of formulation and process variables.

Orally disintegrating tablets (ODTs), which disintegrate rapidly (<1 min) in the mouth and do not require water for administration, have become a very popular dosage form. The study aims to develop a simple and inexpensive method of manufacturing ODTs of a sparingly water-soluble drug, Dextromethorphan hydrobromide. Two factors, three levels (3(2)) full factorial design was used to optimize the diluent, microcrystalline cellulose (X(1)) and superdisintegrant, croscarmellose sodium (X(2)) concentrations. Disintegration time, hardness and T(50) values for all the formulations varied from 12.5 to 152.6 s, 3.58 to 4.92 kp and 0.8 to 2.8 min, respectively. The results indicated that the selected variables have a strong influence on disintegration time, hardness and T(50) of the ODTs. The manufactured ODTs formula composed of 30% microcrystalline cellulose in combination with 3% croscarmellose sodium was chosen as optimized formula, as it showed the lowest disintegration time (12.5 ± 1.22 s), low T(50) (0.8 min.) and hard tablets (4.92 ± 0.28 kp) amongst other tested ODTs formulations. Hardness of DM ODTs was not affected by changing the type of superdisintegrant and lubricant. The disintegration time was significantly (p < 0.05) increased by using sodium starch glycolate instead of croscarmellose sodium.