Exploring the potential of natural polymers from plants as tablet binder and accessing their release profiles: A...

A tablet is a compact dosage form that includes both the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) and various excipients, where a binder acts as an excipient, imparting cohesive quality in the powdered material. The present study aimed to extract polysaccharides from plant samples; Plantago ovata seeds, Plantago ovata husk, Lallemantia royleana, Ocimum basilicum and Acacia nilotica and to investigate their efficacy as tablet excipients. The wet granulation method was adopted for tablet formulation. Three different formulations (3%, 5% and 7%) were prepared by varying the binder concentration (hemicellulose extracted from plant samples). The tablets were evaluated by pre-compression tests; Angle of repose, bulk density, tapped density, Carr's Index, Hausner's ratio and post-compression tests; weight variation test, friability test, disintegration test, thickness test and dissolution test. Results were compared with binder commercially used in paracetamol drug. All 5% and 7% formulations showed friability and hardness values within range. Results of all the formulations of disintegration time are within range except 7% Plantago ovata seeds and 7% Plantago ovata husk. All the extracted hemicellulose showed good binding potential but, in all respects, the best formulation was 7% Lallemantia royleana, which has the potential to replace the synthetic binders in the pharmaceutical industry.