Effervescent tablet

Effervescent tablet

An effervescent tablet is a dosage form, mainly of drugs or dietary supplements , that is dissolved in water and drunk. There are also effervescent tablets without active ingredients, as a variant of effervescent powder .

The bubbling

Until the 1960s it was common and also necessary to stir a tablet in a glass of water until it was completely dissolved. With the introduction of the effervescent tablet, this was no longer necessary.

The bubbling comes from the fact that a salt of carbonic acid splits off carbon dioxide (CO ₂ ) by reacting with an acid in the presence of water . This greatly accelerates the tablet dissolving process. The chemical reaction is basically the same as with effervescent powder or baking powder .

Sodium carbonates ( sodium carbonate and sodium hydrogen carbonate ) or potassium carbonates can be used as the component supplying carbon dioxide , the releasing component is a solid acid such as citric acid , tartaric acid or malic acid .

If the tablet contains sodium hydrogen carbonate (NaHCO ₃ ) and citric acid (C ₆ H ₈ O ₇ ), the following reaction occurs when water is added:

${\displaystyle \mathrm {3\ NaHCO_{3(aq)}+C_{6}H_{8}O_{7(aq)}\to \ Na_{3}C_{6}H_{5}O_{7(aq)}+3\ H_{2}O_{(l)}+3\ CO_{2(g)}} }$

use

Effervescent tablets are offered, among other things, for taking medication, painkillers and cough suppressants .

More often they are intended as a dietary supplement - as a multivitamin preparation or for taking minerals . There are also combination preparations made from vitamin C and calcium or magnesium, among others

Effervescent tablets are also used for other purposes, such as. B. used for cleaning dentures .

advantages

The most noticeable advantage is that the previously usual and necessary stirring until the tablet had dissolved is completely eliminated.

The dissolving of the effervescent tablet causes gas bubbles to bubble, which distributes the ingredients in the water. This ensures that the patient takes the tablet content dissolved in sufficient water.

This is gentle on the stomach, as there is no high concentration of active ingredients at certain points. Already drunk in solution, many substances can be absorbed into the bloodstream more quickly and thus act more quickly. If you have difficulty swallowing (sore throat) or aversion / skepticism (e.g. from children), drinking a solution is more pleasant and therefore more successful.

disadvantage

Many drugs and also some vitamins are not soluble in water and / or are not stable or at least not stable for a long time in aqueous solution. Therefore, not all medicinal products can be given as effervescent tablets. For this reason, there is often a reference to vitamin preparations and medication to drink the liquid immediately after dissolving the tablet.

Due to their composition, effervescent tablets often contain a certain amount of sodium . According to new studies, this is not only of concern for patients with kidney disease, high blood pressure or the like, but can also increase the risk of hypertension and stroke in healthy patients .

Another disadvantage is that, in contrast to conventionally compressed tablets, the lubricity or lubrication of the tablet can be guaranteed by lubricants, whereas the use of lubricants is hardly possible with effervescent tablets. In order to be able to press tablets properly, i. d. Usually certain auxiliaries are required for tableting. These auxiliaries also include lubricants, which serve to facilitate the ejection of the tablet from the die of the tablet press, since they reduce the frictional force between the tablet and the inner surface of the die. As a rule, these are lipophilic substances such. B. talc and magnesium stearate. However, these lipophilic lubricants can reduce the wettability of the tablet and thus negatively affect the disintegration. Furthermore, when these substances are used, the poor solubility often leads to an unaesthetic appearance of the resulting solution, which under certain circumstances can influence the patient's compliance.

Requirements of the European Pharmacopoeia

According to the European Pharmacopoeia, effervescent tablets represent a sub-monograph of tablets. Effervescent tablets are defined as uncoated tablets which usually contain an acidic component and carbonates or hydrogen carbonates as the base component. The tablet is said to react on contact with water to release carbon dioxide. In addition, the pharmacopoeia prescribes that effervescent tablets must be dissolved or disintegrated in water before ingestion.

Effervescent tablets that are marketed in pharmacies for medical purposes must meet the requirements set out in the European Pharmacopoeia. These include, among other things: uniformity of single-dose dosage forms, uniformity of content, uniformity of mass and disintegration. In comparison to the other tablet monographs of the European Pharmacopoeia, 6 effervescent tablets in 200 ml of water at 15 to 25 ° C must disintegrate within 5 minutes.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Peter Langguth and Joachim Seydel: Revised glossary of terms used in pharmaceuticals , Angewandte Chemie 123 (2011) 3635–3651.
2. ↑ J. .. George, W. .. Majeed, IS Mackenzie, TM MacDonald, L. Wei: Association between cardiovascular events and sodium-containing effervescent, dispersible, and soluble drugs: nested case-control study. In: BMJ. 347, 2013, pp. F6954 – f6954, doi : 10.1136 / bmj.f6954 .
3. ↑ Kurt H. Bauer, Karl-Heinz Frömming, Claus Führer: Pharmazeutische Technologie . 10th edition. Deutscher Apotheker Verlag Stuttgart, 2017, ISBN 978-3-8047-3268-1 .
4. ^ Rudolf Voigt, Alfred Fahr : Pharmaceutical technology . 10th edition. Deutscher Apotheker Verlag, Stuttgart 2006.
5. ↑ European Pharmacopoeia + Comments . In: Grundwerk 2014 . Deutscher Apotheker Verlag, Stuttgart 2016, ISBN 978-3-7692-6894-2 .

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