powder form because of its bitter, nauseous and unpleasant taste. It is also difficult to convert it into
liquid dosage form due to stability problem. The only alternative left is to convert this powdered
medicament into granular form.
The solid medicaments are mixed with sweetening, flavoring and coloring agent. A suitable
granulating agent is added to moisten the powders so as to make a coherent mass through sieve
number 10 to make granules. Dry the granules are passed through sieve number 20 and store in a dry
well closed wide mouth bottles.
Nowadays, various antibiotics like erythromycin, phenoxymethyl penicillin, ampicillin etc. which
are unstable in solution are prepared in the dry granular form in which drug is mixed with suspending,
sweetening, flavoring, coloring and granulating agents. The granules are prepared and packed in a
special type of bottles with a specific direction on its label for the patient to add specified amount of
freshly boiled and cooled water to dissolve it or shake well to form a homogenous solution. The label
should also state the time limit within which the reconstituted preparation should be consumed.
Effervescent granules
Explosive mixtures:
Oxidizing agents such as potassium salts of chlorate, dichromate, permanganate and nitrate-
sodium peroxide-silver nitrate and silver oxide explore violently when triturated in a mortar with a
reducing agent such saturated sulfides-sulfur-tannic acid- charcoal. To avoid this problem, each salt is
triturated separately or minimum pressure is used during trituration.
Evaluation of powder
Pharmaceutical powders are evaluated for following quality control parameters:
➢
Content uniformity
➢
Particle size and size distribution
➢
Flow property: Angle of repose, Flow rate Density: Bulk density, tapped density and true density
Hausners ratio
➢
Moisture content
➢
Tensile and cohensive strength measurements
➢
Safety and efficacy.