Excipient

In pharmaceuticals, an excipient is an inactive substance that is mixed with the active ingredient to give medicines consistency. They can also be used to help the manufacturing process of a product.

Excipients are generally considered to be inert. In fact, it is desirable that they do not have any pharmacological action of their own, although some may have an effect in certain circumstances.

General data

In general, active substances by themselves cannot be easily absorbed by the human body; it is necessary to administer them in the appropriate way; therefore the substance must be dissolved or mixed with an excipient substance, whether it is solid or soft; or a vehicle if it is liquid. They can also be used to help the manufacturing process of a product.

Depending on the route of administration it is possible to use different excipients. Also, when an active ingredient has been purified, it often cannot stay that way for long; Another use of the excipients is as stabilizers that ensure the activation of the active ingredient enough to make the product competitive. The most common and recommended use for taking is pure water, a universal solvent.

Types of excipients

• Aglutinantes: help keep the ingredients of a tablet together. Starchs, sugars and cellulose are commonly used as cellulose hydroxypropil or cellulose methyl hydroxypropil (hypromelose). Sugars such as xilitol, sorbitol or maltitol are also used.
• Diluent: fill the contents of a tablet or capsule to achieve a suitable presentation for consumption. Microcrystalline cellulose is a dilunt whose use is fairly widespread in hard jelly tablets or capsules. Dibic calcium phosphate is also a popular tablet filling. For soft jelly capsules oils are usually used.
• Disaggregating: these expand and dissolve when wet, causing the disintegration of the tablet in the digestive tract and free the active principles for its absorption.
• Lubrificantes: prevents the ingredients from clutching in ferrets or sticking in one of the industrial machines with which they are manufactured. Common minerals such as talc or silica, and steroid fats are the most common lubricants in hard jelly tablets or capsules.
• Recoverers: are substances that protect the tablet's ingredients from the effects of air, moisture, and help the unpleasant flavor tablets to be easier to swallow. Most of the coated tablets use a layer of cellulose (plant fiber) that is free of allergenic substances. Other materials used are synthetic polymers or other polysaccharides. Depending on the rate of dissolution of a coating, it can be determined where the digestive tract releases the proteins, or the period of action of the proteins.
• Sweeteners: serve to provide sweet flavor to pharmaceutical forms, giving them more pleasant flavor.
• Flavors and dyes: they serve to improve organoleptic properties, and therefore increase therapeutic compliance.