Stability Studies on a Cough Syrup in Plastic Containers

Packaging of pharmaceuticals is a critical process. It is an economical means of providing protection, presentation, information, identiÞ cation, containment, administration, shelf-life and convenience for a product during carriage, storage, display and ultimate total use, paying due attention to any legal and environmental factors1. Plastics are a wide group of solid composite materials, which are largely organic, and can be cast, molded or polymerized directly into shape, usually through the application singly or together of heat and pressure2. They offer advantages in being light in weight, easy to process, break resistant, tamper proof, pilfer proof and corrosion resistant. Though plastics are being widely used in solid dosage packaging, their use in packaging liquid dosage forms is restricted. This is due to their drawbacks such as leaching, sorption, permeation, photodegradation and polymer modification. In spite of these drawbacks, the ß exibility and versatility of plastics makes them an attractive alternate packaging material for packing liquid dosage forms, especially cough syrups.