A Directly Compressible Pregelatinised Sago Starch: A New Excipient in the Pharmaceutical Tablet Formulations

An excipient intended for direct compression in pharmaceutical tableting must show important features of flowability and compactibility. This study investigated pregelatinised sago starch as an excipient for direct compression tablets. Pregelatinised sago starch was prepared and characterised. Its powder bulk properties and performance in the tablet formulations with paracetamol as a model drug were compared against two commercial, directly compressible excipients, namely Avicel® PH 101 and Spress® B820. The results showed that pregelatinisation did not affect the chemical structure of sago starch, but its degree of crystallinity reduced, and X-ray diffraction pattern changed from C-type to A-type. Powder bulk properties of pregelatinised sago starch and Spress® B820 were comparable, exhibiting better flowability but lower compactibility than Avicel® PH 101. In the formulation of paracetamol tablets, pregelatinised sago starch and Spress® B820 performed equally well, followed by Avicel® PH 101 as indicated in Formulations 3, 2 and 1, respectively.