Sorbitol spray-dried

Spray Drying. Spray-dry encapsulation processes (Fig. 7) consist of spraying an intimate mixture of core and shell material into a heated chamber where rapid desolvation occurs to thereby produce microcapsules (24,25). The first step in such processes is to form a concentrated solution of the carrier or shell material in the solvent from which spray drying is to be done. Any water- or solvent-soluble film-forming shell material can, in principle, be used. Water-soluble polymers such as gum arable, modified starch, and hydrolyzed gelatin are used most often. Solutions of these shell materials at 50 wt % soHds have sufficiently low viscosities that they stiU can be atomized without difficulty. It is not unusual to blend gum arable and modified starch with maltodextrins, sucrose, or sorbitol. 

Instant sorbitol is made by spray drying a concentrated aqueous solution of sorbitol [2]. 

Bauer H, Herkert T, Bartels M. 2000. Investigations on polymorphism of mannitol/sorbitol mixtures after spray drying using different scanning calorimetry, X-ray diffraction and near infrared spectroscopy. Pharm. Ind. 62(3) 231-235. 

Fig. 11 Sugar alcohols. Mannitol, crystalline (A), mannitol, spray dried (B), and sorbitol-instant, spray dried (C).

Tablets. SEM was widely used to investigate the structure of tablets. An excellent review is presented by Hess. " Imaging of tablets is a useful tool to demonstrate differences in compression behavior of substances. Fig. 24 shows an example where the plastically deforming spray-dried sorbitol instant was compressed together with the more brittle ascorbic acid in one tablet. At low compressional force of 5 kN for a 10 mm tablet, the rectangular ascorbic acid crystals as well as the partially deformed sorbitol particles are visible (Fig. 24A). In Figs. 24A and B, the surfaces of two tablets compressed at 5 kN and 30 kN are compared. At higher compressional forces, a uniform, flat, and smooth tablet surface is formed, but within this surface a single unchanged ascorbic acid crystal could be detected. Observation of a broken tablet (Fig. 24C), which was prepared at a high compressional force of 30 kN, reveals that the ascorbic acid crystal is totally fixed within a matrix of plastically...

Sorbitol can exist in four crystalline forms. Guyot-Hermann, Leblanc, and Draguet-Brugmans compared 11 commercially available varieties of sorbitol, and found three of these four forms to be present. y-Sorbitol was found to be the most useful as a tablet diluent. The method of manufacture has also been shown to affect tabletting properties, differences being attributed to variations in particle shape and surface properties. Spray-dried varieties of sorbitol are available as direct compression diluents which are claimed to have overcome problems associated with the different crystalline forms. ... 

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