Development and evaluation of mathematical model to predict disintegration time of fast disintegrating tablets using powder characteristics

Abstract

The objective of the study was to develop a mathematical model for predicting the disintegration time of fast disintegrating tablets (FDTs) by estimating the powder characteristics of powder blend prior to compression. A combination of chitosan-alginate complex and glycine in the ratio of 50:50 was used for preparing FDTs. The developed mathematical model allowed water sorption time (WST), effective pore radius (R_eff.p) and swelling Index (SI) of powder mixture as well as tablet crushing strength to be successfully correlated with disintegration time (DT) of FDTs. The predicted model showed that disintegration time of FDTs to be directly correlated with powder characteristics and inversely correlated with tablet crushing strength. Furthermore, a correlation of 0.97 was obtained when DT of FDTs was compared with SI/(WST * R_eff.p). This correlation was not affected by inclusion of water soluble (ondansetron hydrochloride or metaclopramide hydrochloride) or water insoluble (domperidone) drugs in the powder blend or FDTs. These observations indicated the versatility of the mathematical model in predicting the disintegration time of FDTs by evaluating the selected characteristics of the powder blends without actually preparing the FDTs.

Keywords::

• Fast disintegrating tablets
• mathematical model
• metaclopramide HCl FDTs
• water sorption time
• effective pore radius