Superdisintegrants in the Development of Orally Disintegrating Tablets: a Review

The desire of improved palatability in orally administered products has prompted the development of numerous formulations with improved performance and acceptability. Orally disintegrating tablets are an emerging trend in novel drug delivery system and have received ever-increasing demand during the last few decades. The field has become a rapidly growing area in the pharmaceutical industry and gaining popularity due to ease of administration and better patient compliance especially for geriatric and pediatric patients. ODTs are solid unit dosage forms, which disintegrates or dissolves rapidly in the mouth without chewing and water. This type of property in dosage form can be attained by addition of different excipients, from which disintegrant is the key adjuvant. In recent years, several newer agents have been developed known as superdisintegrants. Diverse categories of superdisintegrants such as synthetic, semi-synthetic, natural and coprocessed blends etc. have been employed to develop effectual mouth dissolving tablets and to overcome the limitations of conventional tablet dosage forms. The objective of the present article is to highlight the various kinds of superdisintegrants along with their role in tablet disintegration and drug release, which are being used in the formulation to provide the safer, effective drug delivery with patient compliance. This review focuses on various synthetic superdisintegrants, natural superdisintegrants from different plant sources, co-processed excipients blend and their efficiency. INTRODUCTION: Oral drug delivery remains the preferred route for administration of various drugs . Solid dosage forms are popular because of ease of administration, accurate dosage, self-medication, pain evasion and most importantly the patient compliance . However, traditional tablets and capsules have emerged as inconvenient or unfeasible for some geriatric patients because of changes in various physiological and neurological conditions linked with ageing including difficulty in swallowing, hand tremors, weakening in their eyesight, hearing, memory, risk of choking other than change in taste and smell. Solid dosage forms pose difficulty for swallowing in patient groups such as children, mentally retarded, uncooperative, nauseated, or on reduced liquid intake diets 3, . In addition, for travelling patients who do not have immediate access to water, limit utility of orally administered conventional tablets or capsules . Therefore, recent advancements in novel drug delivery systems have resulted in a convenient dosage form for administration and to achieve better patient compliance known as fast dissolving tablets (FDTs). FDT is solid unit dosage form containing a medicinal