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