Mini-review on Natural Disintegrants in Pharmaceutical Formulations

Abstract

Disintegrants are agents which are integrated to tablets and some encapsulated formulations in order to promote the breakup of the tablet and capsule “slugs” into more small fragments in an aqueous environment which thereafter increment the available surface area and promoting a more rapid release of the drug substance.  The development of new excipients for potential use as disintegrant agent in tablet formulations continues to be of interest. This is because different disintegrant agents can be useful in promoting penetration of moisture and dispersion of the tablet matrix and disintegration of tablet has received considerable attention at present as an essential step in obtaining fast drug release. Natural polymers such as starches, gums, mucilage, and dried fruits utilized as binder, diluent, and disintegrants to increase the solubility of poorly water-soluble drug, decrease the disintegration time, and provide nutritional supplement. Natural disintegrants are safe and economical than synthetic disintegrants such as Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP). Therefore, in the present review, an attempt has been made to reveal the importance of the natural disintegrants in the pharmaceutical formulations.