RHEOLOGY AND COMPRESSION CHARACTERISTICS OF LACTOSE BASED DIRECT COMPRESSION EXCIPIENTS

This article compares the rheological and the fundamental direct compr ession properties of five lactose-based excipients for direct compress ion. The sequence observed, in decreasing order, of flow characteristi cs was: Ludipress(R), Cellactose(R), Tablettose(R), Fast-Flo Lactose a nd anhydrous lactose. Granulometry of Ludipress(R), Cellactose(R) and Fast-Flo Lactose demonstrated a clearly normal distribution with best fitting to straight lines on a probability scale. The compression char acteristics of Cellactose(R) are better than those of the other lactos e-based excipients which showed plasticity values from maximum to mini mum as follows: Ludipress(R), Fast-Flo Lactose(R), Tablettose(R) and l actose. Fast-Flo Lactose showed a greater dependence of disintegration on crushing strength than did the other lactose-based excipients.