Influence of Concentration of Modified Maize Starch on Compaction Characteristics and Mechanical Properties of Paracetamol Tablet Formulations

Compact -forming ability of a multi-component paracetamol tablet formulations with varying amounts of modified Maize Starch incorporated as external disintegrant was studied with a view to know the influence of the increase on compaction characteristics and the quality of resulting tablets. Three formulations coded B-1, B-2 and B-3 with similar constituents but varying amount of modified Maize starch were designed and prepared by wet granulation process to yield granules that were compacted into tablets. Data and information were collected from out-of-die method; using hand operated tablet press at 5 predetermined pressures and fitted into Heckel plots. Compaction behaviours and mechanical properties of the tablets were evaluated.
The three formulations showed consolidation by deformation but at different levels. Sample B-3 which has highest concentration of modified Maize starch seemed to perform on the average better than B-2 and B-1. Mean yield pressure vindicated the ease of compression of granules to be B-3 > B-1 > B-2. It is inferred that modified Maize starch could be used to moderate the compaction characteristics of pharmaceutical agglomerates and mechanical properties of resulting tablets. Lower values of yield pressure, constant A, and relative density of B-3 justified the increase in concentration to be beneficial to the formulation. B-3 had highest concentration of modified Maize starch and showed less resistance to consolidation, decrease in granules fragmentation and fast onset of deformation.