PHARMACEUTICAL CHARACTERISTIC DIFFERENCE OF SEVERAL KINDS OF NITROGLYCERIN TABLETS

In recent years, Nitroglycerin(NG) has been reevaluated as to its usef ulness against angina pectoris. A number of new dosage forms of NG hav e been developed by pharmaceutical companies. However, there is still a great demand for NG sublingual tablets as a specific medicine to dea l with angina pectoris attacks. NG has a high volatility, so patients need to pay attention to the handling and carrying of NG tablets. Rece ntly, new NG tablets have been manufactured by several companies. Thes e NG tablets are designed to either prevent or retard NG volatility fr om the NG tablet. Newly designed tablets, Nitrostat(NS), Nitropan(NP) and conventional nitroglycerin tablets (Yamakawa(YK)) were examined to elucidate their pharmaceutical characteristics. The characteristics e xamined were as follows: measurement of remaining quantity of NG after various storage conditions, hardness test, friability test, content u niformity test and disintegration test. As a result, NP was superior f or its ability to prevent NG volatility as compared to NS and YK under all experimental conditions tested. NP also gave excellent results fo r all analyses.