TABLET DOSAGE FORM

Introduction:
 Tablets are the most common solid dosage form that is given by Oral route (GIT).
 They are safer than injectables.
 Pills are small, round, solid dosage forms containing a medicinal agent and intended for
oral administration. Nowadays pills have been replaced by tablets and capsules.
 Friable pills were first prepared by Upjohn in the 1950s. Later, pills were replaced by
compressed tablets.

Definition:

 Tablets may be defined as solid dosage pharmaceutical forms containing drug

substances with or without suitable diluents and prepared either by compression or
molding method.
 Tablets are solid dosage forms usually prepared with the aid of suitable
pharmaceutical excipients. They may vary in size, shape, weight, hardness, thickness,
disintegration and dissolution characteristics and in other aspects depending on their
intended use and method of manufacturing.
 Tablets may be defined as the solid unit dosage form of medicament or medicaments
with or without suitable diluents and prepared either by molding or by compression.
 A tablet is a mixture of active substances and excipient, usually in powder form,
pressed or compressed or compacted into a solid. The excipient include binders,
glindants (flow aids) and lubricants to ensure efficient tableting, disintegrates to
ensure that the tablets break up in the digestive tract; sweetness or flavor to mask the
taste of bad-tasting active ingredients and pigments to make uncoated tablets, visually
attractive.
 Properties of Tablets:

The properties of tablets are following:

 They are different in shape, size and weight which depend upon the amount of
medicament and the mode of administration.
 It should be an elegant product having its own identity
 It should have the strength to withstand the rigors of mechanical shocks.
 It should have the chemical and physical stability to maintain its physical
attributes.
 It must be able to release the mechanical agent.
 Tablets are disk shaped with convex surfaces but they are also-available in special
shapes like round, oval, oblong, cylindrical, square, triangular etc.
 The weight of oral tablets may range from 0.2 to 0.8 gm including the diluents but
the tablets meant for administration other than oral route may be lighter or
heavier.
 They offer a number of advantages to the patient, prescribers‟ manufacturer and
the manufacturing pharmacist.
 Because of these advantages their popularity is continuously increasing day by
day.

Composition of Tablets:

 It comprises a mixture of active substances and excipients, usually in powder form,

pressed or compacted from a powder into a solid dose
 The excipients can include diluents, binders or granulating agents, glidants (flow aids)
and lubricants to ensure efficient tableting; disintegrants to promote tablet break-up in the
digestive tract; sweeteners or flavors to enhance taste; and pigments to make the tablets
visually attractive.
 A polymer coating is often applied to make the tablet smoother and easier to swallow, to
control the release rate of the active ingredient, to make it more resistant to the
environment (extending its shelf life), or to enhance the tablet's appearance.
 Properties of Excipients:

 It should be Inert – shouldn‟t have pharmacological effect.

 It should be compatible with API – shouldn‟t later the API.
 It should be cheap.
 It should be easy to handle.
 It should be stable and pure.

Selection Criteria of Excipients:

 It should give proper shape to tablet.

 It should have proper weight
 It should have proper hardness.
 It should have proper rate of dissolution.
 It should have proper disintegration.
 It should have friability – strength of tablet to withstand with the shock and aberration.

Characteristics of an Ideal Tablet:

1. FREE OF DEFECTS:
A tablet should be an elegant product having its own identity while being free of defects
such as contamination, chips, cracks and discoloration.
2. PHYSICAL STABILITY:
A tablet should have the chemical and physical stability to maintain its physical attributes
over time .Various physical properties of tablets can undergo change under the
environment or stress conditions and that physical stability, through its effects on
bioavailability in particular can be of more significance.
3. CHEMICAL STABILITY:
A tablet should have the chemical and physical stability to maintain its physical attributes
over time so as not to allow alternation of medicinal agents.
4. RELEASE OF MEDICINAL AGENTS:
The tablet must be able to release the medicinal agents in the body in a predictable
manner and reproducible manner.
5. STRENGTH: A tablet should have strength to withstand the rigors of mechanical shocks
encountered in its production, packaging, shipping and dispensing.

6. COLOUR: The colour of product must be uniform within a single tablet. Non uniformity of
coloring not only lacks esthetic appeal but could be associated by the consumer with non-
uniformity of content and general poor quality of product.

7. ODOUR: The presences of an odour in a batch of tablets could indicate a stability problem,
such as the characteristics odour of acetic acid in degrading the aspirin tablets.

Note: Some tablets are scored, or grooved, which allows them to be easily broken into two or
more parts. This enables the patient to swallow smaller portions as may be desired, or when
prescribed, it allows the tablet to be taken in reduced or divided dosage. Some tablets that are not
scored are not intended to be broken or cut by the patient since they may have special coating
and / or drug-release features that would be compromised by altering the tablet‟s physical
integrity.

Types and Classes of Tablets:

There are four major types of tablets.

These are following:

1. Tablets ingested orally

2. Tablets used in oral cavity

3. Tablets administered by other routes

4. Tablets used to prepare solutions

1. Tablets Ingested Orally: Orally ingested tablets are designed to be swallowed intact, with
exception of chewable tablets.

These are further classified as:

A. Compressed tablets
B. Multiple compressed tablets.

A. Compressed Tablets:
These tablets are swallowed as such. They are placed over the tongue and swallowed with a
drink of water or any other suitable liquid. Most of them are formulated in such a way that
they disintegrate in the stomach and dissolve in the gastric fluids thus absorption takes place
from there. Compressed tablets are prepared by single compression using tablet machines.
After a quantity of powdered or granulated tableting material flow into a die, the upper and
lower punches of the tablet machine compress the material under a high pressure (~tons/in2).
This category refers to standard uncoated tablets made by compression and employing any of
three basic methods of manufacture.
They include two types of tablets.
I. Direct Compressed Tablets
II. Wet Granulation Tablets

B. Multiple Compressed Tablets:

Multiple compressed tablets are prepared by subjecting the fill material to more than a single
compression.
This results into two types of tablets:
 Layered Tablets
These are the compressed tablets in which the granules of incompatible substances are
compressed into two or more layers successively in the same tablet. Special tablet making
machines are required for making layered tablets. Layered tablets are prepared by initial
compactation of a portion of fill material in a die followed by additional fill material and
compression to form two-layered or three-layered tablets, depending on the number of
separate fills.
 Compression Coated Tablets (Tablet within tablet)
In preparation of compression coated tablets special machines are required to place the
performed core tablet precisely within the die for application of surrounding fill material.
Examples include Norgesic Tablet.
 This class is further divided into following subclasses.
These are as follow:
i. Repeat-action tablets
ii. Delayed-action and enteric coated tablets
iii. Sugar and chocolate coated tablets
iv. Film coated tablets
v. Chewable tablets

ADVANTAGE:

An advantage of multiple compressed tablets is that medicinal agents are separated to

prevent incompatibility, or each layer provides drug release at a different stage or for
coating purposes.

DISADVANTAGE:

It is tedious and expensive process and requires accurate and precise machinery.
i. Repeat Action tablets: The mode of operation of repeat action coated tablets and their
limitations are based on uncontrolled and unpredictable gastric employing.

ii. Delayed Action and Enteric Coated Tablets: The delayed action and enteric coated
dosage form is intended to release a drug after sometime delay, or after the tablet has
passed through one part of GI tract into another.

Ecotrine tablets and caplets are example.

ADVANTAGES:

 Protects drugs that are destroyed in acid medium.

 Protects the stomach from drugs that cause irritation to the gastric mucosa

iii. Sugar and Chocolate Coated Tablets: Compressed tablets may be coated with colored
or uncolored sugar layer. This coating is water soluble and quickly dissolves after
swallowing.
 ADVANTAGES:

 Sugar coat protects drug from effects of air and humidity.

 It provides a barrier to objectionable taste or odor.
  Enhances the appearance of compressed tablets and permits of identifying
manufacturer‟s information.

DISADVANTAGES:

 Time and Expertise is required in the coating process.

 Size and weight is increased (50 %) so shipping cost is also increased.

iv. Film-coated Tablets:

Film-coated tablets are compressed tablets coated with a thin layer of a polymer capable of
forming a skin line film. By its composition, the coating is designed to rupture and expose the
core tablet.
ADVANTAGE:

These have an advantage over sugar coated tablets that they are more durable, less bulky, and
less time consuming to apply.
v. Chewable Tablets:

 Chewable tablets are intended to be chewed in the mouth prior to swallowing and are not
intended to be swallowed intact. It can easily administer to children. A number of antacid
tablets and multivitamin tablets are prepared as chewable tablets.
 For the preparation of chewable tablets mannitol is used as a base.
 It is a white crystalline, chemically inert, non hygroscopic, thermo stable powder and is
as sweet as that of glucose.
 It does not have any objectionable effects but since it is expensive so i cannot be used in
tablets of low cost, therefore other substances like sorbitol lactose, chocolate powder,
dextrose and glycine can be substituted in place of mannitol
 These tablets should have very acceptable taste and flavor. They should disintegrate in a
short time and produce cool sweet taste. Chewable tablets can be taken at any place even
 if water is not available. These tablets do not require any disintegrating agent to be
present in the formulation. The use of gums and other substances which produce hard
granules should be avoided. The lubricants used should have agreeable taste.

ADVANTAGE:
Chewable tablets are mainly used mainly for children‟s multivitamin tablets and for the administration
of antacids and anti-flatulent. Examples are Pepcid chewable tablets and Rolaids chewable tablets.

2. Tablets Used in Oral Cavity:

Tablets that are used in oral cavity are further classified in to two types.

These are following:

i. Buccal Tablets
ii. Sublingual Tablets
iii. Troches and Lozenges
iv. Dental Cones
i. Buccal and Sublingual Tablets:

These two classes of tablets are intended to be held in the mouth. These are flat oval shaped
tablets. It is used because some of the drugs destroyed in gastric mucosa. These tablets
contain large proportions of sweetening agents like mannitol and/or sucrose to impart
sweetness.

ADVANTAGE:

Sublingual tablets are used for drugs that are destroyed by gastric juice and/or are poorly
absorbed from the GI tract.

ii. Troches and Lozenges:

 These are two other types of tablets used in the oral cavity, where they are intended to exert a
local effect in the mouth or throat. These are made by moulding process.
 Lozenges tablets should not disintegrate in the oral cavity but should dissolve slowly in the mouth
to produce continuous effect on the mucous membrane of the throat.
 They can be prepared by molding as well as by compression method.
 The lozenges prepared by compression are known as lozenge tablets.
 the formulation of lozenges contain no disintegrating agent
 The quantity of binding agent is increased so as to induce slow dissolution.
 The formulation must contain sweetening and flavoring agents.
ii. Dental Cones:

These are relatively minor tablet forms that are designed to be placed in the empty socket
remaining following a tooth extraction. Their usual purpose is to prevent the multiplication of
bacteria.