Granulation techniques and technologies: recent progresses

Abstract

Granulation, the process of particle enlargement by agglomeration technique, is one of the most significant unit operations in the production of pharmaceutical dosage forms, mostly tablets and capsules. Granulation process transforms fine powders into free-flowing, dust-free granules that are easy to compress. Nevertheless, granulation poses numerous challenges due to high quality requirement of the formed granules in terms of content uniformity and physicochemical properties such as granule size, bulk density, porosity, hardness, moisture, compressibility, etc. together with physical and chemical stability of the drug. Granulation process can be divided into two types: wet granulation that utilize a liquid in the process and dry granulation that requires no liquid. The type of process selection requires thorough knowledge of physicochemical properties of the drug, excipients, required flow and release properties, to name a few. Among currently available technologies, spray drying, roller compaction, high shear mixing, and fluid bed granulation are worth of note. Like any other scientific field, pharmaceutical granulation technology also continues to change, and arrival of novel and innovative technologies are inevitable. This review focuses on the recent progress in the granulation techniques and technologies such as pneumatic dry granulation, reverse wet granulation, steam granulation, moisture-activated dry granulation, thermal adhesion granulation, freeze granulation, and foamed binder or foam granulation. This review gives an overview of these with a short description about each development along with its significance and limitations.

Gastroprotective effects of the isopropanol extract of Artemisia princeps and its gastroretentive floating tablets on gastric mucosal injury

“…IPAP tablets were prepared by the conventional wet granulation method (17). IPAP (60 mg) and MicroceLac 100 (246 mg, as a filler) were kneaded with ethanol in a high-speed mixer and granulated.…”

Effect of Natural and Synthetic Polymers on the Properties of Candesartan Cilexetil Matrix Tablet Prepared by Dry Granulation

“…Slug tablet then weighed and calculated the real number of tablets in which this number will help in determining the remaining amount of lubricant used. After calculating the required amount of lubricant to be used, the slug was sieved to granules by siever and the resulted granules were ready for the second compression by adding the calculated amount of lubricant to the granules and compressed to obtain the tablets [8,9].…”

“…Granules used in the pharmaceutical industry are primarily produced as an intermediary with a size range of 0.2-0.5 mm which either packed as a dosage form or mixed with other excipients before tablet. The preferred less costly granulation technique is dry granulation which could be achieved either by slugging for small scale production and roller compaction for large-scale production [8]. The rationale of this study is to prepare candesartan cilexetil matrix tablets by dry granulation technique using different polymers.…”

Role of Chitosan, Carboxy Methyl Cellulos, Polyvinyl Pyrrolidone, Kyron T134 and Primogel to Design the Mouth Disintegrating Telmisartan Tablet With Extended Release Profile

“…Approximately one glucose monomer unit in every four is substituted. (Shanmugam, 2015) Whereas, the Kyron -T134 is basically derivative of polymer-polyacrylic acid in cross linking form used for taste masking and stabilization of drug in different pharmaceutical industries. It is whitish in color and swells upon contact with water.…”