Design and evaluation of taste masked dextromethorphan hydrobromide oral disintegrating tablets (original) (raw)

Oral disintegrating tablets (ODTs) have advantages of solid dosage forms such as good stability, accurate dosing, small packaging size, and easy handling, as well as those of liquid formulations such as easy administration and minimal risk of suffocation. Therefore, they are beneficial for children, elderly and schizophrenic patients who have difficulty in swallowing conventional solid dosage forms (1). The success of ODT depends on patient acceptance, palatability and the challenging aspect in the formulation of orally disintegrating tablets is to mask the bitterness of active pharmaceutical ingredients, since most drugs have bitter taste. The distasteful sensation of a drug can be masked either by the addition of flavors, sweeteners and effervescent agents or by reducing direct contact with the patient's taste buds through coating or granulation (2, 3). Flavor is often overpowered by the taste of the medicine and the use of effervescent agents is not always convenient. Moreover, coating and granulation of the active ingredient may 267 Acta Pharm. 60 (2010) 267-280 Original research paper 269 M. Malladi et al.: Design and evaluation of taste masked dextromethorphan hydrobromide oral disintegrating tablets, Acta Pharm. 60 (2010) 267-280.