Kale Vinita, Gadekar Shrikant, Patil Mahesh
Agglomeration is a size enlargement process in which primary particles stick together to form agglomerates. In past, various techniques have been developed to form agglomerates. One of the aims of this study was to form agglomerates using solvent treated method and traditional wet granulation method of a bulk drug and to study the effect of agglomeration on physical functionality of agglomerated and original bulk powders. Another objective of the study was to prepare compact of the agglomerated powders and bulk powder and to study their compactibility properties. The solvent treated agglomeration process was performed using 5% aqueous ammonia solution at different stirring speed and time. Powder flow and compactibility were considered as functionality parameters. Powder flowability was expressed in terms of – size and shape of particles, static angle of repose, Hausner ratio, Carrs index, porosity and packability. The compacts of agglomerated powders and bulk powder were prepared and tested for compressibility properties. All the powder functional properties of the solvent treated agglomerates were dramatically improved. Compacts by direct compression method could be formed successfully of solvent treated agglomerate powder that was comparable with the wet granules. The original powder of bulk drug failed to be compressed by direct compression method. Thus solvent treated agglomerates provided the requirements needed to convert wet granulated formulations to direct compression formulations, thus avoiding labor and energy intensive of wet granulation processes and is an alternative to develop cost effective formulations.
