Powders Flashcards
Powder
A dry, solid substance composed of finely divided particles
- made from crushing, grinding or comminuting
- type of dosage form
Pharmaceutical Powder
dosage forms of a solid or mixture of solids reduced to a finely divided state and intended for internal or external use
Granules
prepared agglomerates of powdered materials
Powders have been used
- Orally
- Via the nose as snuffs
- Insufflations- powders blown into body cavity
- Dissolved/ solutions for topical and oral use or use as douches
Benefits for powders
- Easy alteration of quantity of drug dose
- Useful for children and individuals who cannot swallow tablets/ capsules
- Provide rapid onset since absorption is not dependent upon disintegration, only dissolution of material
- more stable than liquid dosage forms
Size distribution affetcs
- Dissolution rate
- Absorption
- Stability
- Texture and taste
- Flow and sedimentation rates
Polymorphism
ability of a solid material to exist in more than one form or crystal structure
- only exist in solid state and do not exist in solution
- Can be checked by various techniques to verify and establish purity
- Polymorphs may possess different physiochemical properties such as stabilities, solubilities, rates of dissolution and melting points
Dissolution
As a particles dissolves
- surface molecules are the first to enter into solution
- Saturated drug layers forms on surface known as diffusion layer
- Drug passes diffusion layer into the dissolving fluid
- Upon contact with membranes, absorption occurs
Dissolution rate
- time it takes for drug to dissolve, especially at absorption site
- controls overall bioavailability
- rate may be increased by decreasing particle size and/ or viscosity of medium
Steps in preparing a powder formulation
- Obtain raw material
- Analyze material (characteristics): Size, chemistry. Particles of all ingredients should be similar in size
- Weigh
- Sieve
- Blend
- Package final product
Micrometrics
science of small particles
Examples of Micrometrics
- particle size and distribution
- angle of repose
- porosity
- void and bulk volume
Sieving
particles are passed by mechanical shaking through a series of sieves of known and successively smaller size
Other techniques for separating size
Microscopy- Particles measured against a grid
Light scattering/ Light diffraction
Sedimentation rate- Determined by measuring the particle settling viscosity in a liquid medium via Stokes Law
Powder particle size ranges from
very coarse (1cm) to extremely fine (1um) - usually can be easily characterized by the % of material retained by a series of standard sieves
Angle of Repose
simple technique estimating flow properties of a powder
- determined by allowing a powder to flow through a funnel and fall freely upon a surface
- Height and diameter of the resulting cone is measured
Angle of repose equation
tan(o)= height of powder cone/radius of cone = h/r
- Powder with low angle flows freely
- Powders with high angels flow poorly
Porosity
ratio of volume of interspaces to the volume of the mass
- Packing depends on particle shape w void spaces between particles
- if particles are not uniform, smaller particles may fit into spaces between the large particles and decrease void spaces
Apparent or bulk density ( untapped density)
- Density of material including pore and voids (true volume +porosity)
pa= m/ Vbulk
Tapped density
ratio of powder bed mass to powder bed volume obtained by mechanically tapping a graduated cylinder containing sample until little to no further volume change is seen
p/ m/V
Particle reduction
increases particle number and total surface area
- Particle size and shape in a powder is irregular
Coarse division
Reducing large particle into fragments of different sizes by cutting, crushing or attrition
Communition
Process of reducing particle size
Trituration
Grinding or pulverizing powders to create fine particles with a mortar and pestle
Process of reducing particle size
- Powder blending technique