Evaluation of binders in the preparation of medicinal carbon tablets by wet granule compression.

Medicinal carbon (MC) tablets were prepared to obtain an oral dosage form that can be easily taken. The MC tablets were made by the wet granule compression method, in which hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC), carboxymethyl cellulose sodium (CMC-Na) and maltitol (MT) were applied as binders. Brilliant Blue FCF (BB) was used as a model drug. The binders were evaluated in terms of formability of the granules and tablets, their strength, disintegration of the tablets, and their effect on the adsorption potential of MC. HPC and CMC-Na gave the strong granules at a fairly low concentration, but more MT was needed to obtain the strong granules. The tablets could be formed only when using MT at 120% (w/w) of the MC amount. The tablet displayed good hardness and rapid disintegration. The adsorption potential was not affected by CMC-Na, and slightly prevented by MT. However, the adsorption ability of MC was lowered more with the increase in HPC. The granules and tablets exhibited similar adsorption potentials, which were a little lower than that of MC suspended in MT aqueous solution. Similar adsorption characteristics were also observed in a real drug, acetaminophen. It is suggested that the MC tablets prepared by the wet granule compression using MT as a binder should be useful as a compact dosage form of MC.