Isolation, purification and evaluation of binding property of locust bean gum in paracetamol tablets
Shittu A O, Adebayo L A
Abstract:
This research was conducted to isolate and purify “LOCUST BEAN GUM” (LBG) from locust bean seeds. It was investigated as a potential binder in paracetamol (PCM) tablets. The Locust bean gum was extracted by a standard method. The gum was extracted using ethanol (analytical grade). The viscosity of LBG at 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 %w/v were found to be: 62, 80, 90, and 105 mPa.S-1) respectively. The physicochemical properties of various batches of PCM granules showed fair flowability and compressibility. The granule size percent cumulative showed average granule size for granules having LBG and AG binder at 500 µm, while that of gelatin was located at 755 µm. Both LBG and AG formed softer tablet compared with gelatin. The LBG was used as binder to formulate the paracetamol tablets by wet granulation method at varying concentration of the gums ranging from 0.25, 0.50, 0.75 and 1.00 %w/v (F1 to F4), (acacia gum as binder,F5 to F8; gelatin as binder, F9–F12) using a single punch tablet machine compressed at compression 2.0 KN and punch and die size 12 mm. Evaluation of paracetamol tablet yielded tablets with lower crushing “44 N and 45 N” for F3 and F4 respectively (LBG as binder at concentration of 0.75 and 1.0 %w/v respectively) compared with F7 and F8, “52 N and 53 N” respectively (acacia gum as binder at the same concentration as former) and, F11 and F12 “101 N and 110 N” respectively (gelatin as binder also as former).The friability values for F3, F4, F7, F8, F11, and F12, are as follow: 1.41, 1.22; 1.20, 1.11; 1.04 and 1.02 % respectively. LBG and AG, both formed tablets relatively less compact compared with gelatin. The disintegration times for the same batches are in the following order: 27, 28, 30, 31, 60 and 75 min respectively. The results indicate that “LBG” is a good binder in terms of crushing strength, friability and disintegration time. In conclusion, locust been gum is relatively as good as acacia gum in formulating conventional tablets with wet formulation method.
Keywords: Locust Bean Gum, Binder, Seed Gum, Wet Granulation.