Effect of the Mode of Super Disintegrate Incorporation on Dissolution in Wet Granulated Tablets

The effect of the mode of super disintegrant incorporation in wet granulated tablets was investigated with three super disintegrants: sodium starch glycolate, crospovidone, and croscarmellose sodium. The disintegrants were incorporated extragranularly or intragranuiarly or distributed equally between the two phases. Lactose, naproxen, or dibasic calcium phosphate was used as the principal tablet component to provide various degrees of solubility to the formulations. The formulations were dried to three different levels of moisture content. The results indicated that, for the formulations studied, extragranular incorporation resulted in faster dissolution than did equal distribution intragranuiarly and extragranularly, which in turn was superior to intragranular incorporation. Granulation moisture content was found to have a formulation- specific impact on tablet dissolution, with each main tablet component behaving in a different fashion. When all other factors were kept constant, there was a tendency for croscarmellose sodium to produce faster tablet dissolution than sodium starch glycolate or crospovidone. The super disintegrants tended to promote faster dissolution in a neutral pH medium than in an acidic medium.