Impact of Compression Force on Mechanical, Textural, Release and Chewing Perception Properties of Compressible Medicated Chewing Gums

Abstract

Medicated chewing gums (MCGs) represent a beneficial platform for realizing drugs intended for dental prophylaxis and treatment. The present study aimed to investigate the impact of compression force on the mechanical, textural, release, and chewing perception characteristics of compressible MCGs with the combination of lysozyme hydrochloride (LH) and ascorbic acid (AsA). Four batches of MCGs were obtained on a laboratory single-punch tablet machine applying different forces, i.e., 5, 7, 10, and 15 kN, and evaluated by their geometrical parameters, mechanical resistance, surface and internal structure characteristics, texture profile, release behavior, and perception attributes during mastication. It was found that increasing compression force slightly affected resistance to crushing and friability of MCGs, but resulted in surface smoothing and formation of a thicker layer with highly compacted particle arrangement. According to the texture analysis, increasing compression force led to harder and more adhesive gums, indicating possible difficulties in chewing and, therefore, impairment of their consumer properties. Lower compression forces were also found to be preferable in terms of better drug release from the obtained chewing gums. The volunteers’ assessment showed that an increase of compression force led to significantly raising the initial hardness and crumbliness as well as to decreasing the rate of the integral gum mass formation during mastication, which may negatively affect perceptive sensations when using MCGs. Based on the results obtained, the optimal compressing force was selected to be 7 kN, which allows obtaining MCGs with good organoleptic, mechanical, textural, and release properties.

The Study of the Cytotoxicity, Proliferative and Microbiological Activity of the Medicated Chewing Gum with Ascorbic Acid and Lysozyme Hydrochloride Using Different Culture of Cells

“…The results correlate with the experimental data of other scientists, who determined that the concentrations of ascorbic acid at 30 mg and 60 mg were too low to adversely affect the hard tissues of the teeth, with a positive effect on bleeding gums and a significant reduction in tartar and plaque after the use of chewing gum with ascorbic acid at these concentrations [55]. In addition, our biopharmaceutical studies confirmed a slight shift in pH (from 6.07 to 5.70) after "chewing" gums for 10 min [27].…”

“…Fine Chemicals Ltd., Mumbai, India) was added to this mixture. Round flat-faced chewing gums with a mass of 1000 mg and a diameter of 13 mm were compressed at a compression force of 7 kN on a laboratory single-punch tablet machine (model HTM-01E, Mariupol Plant of Technological Equipment, Mariupol, Ukraine) [ 27 ].…”

“…After 30 min of “chewing”, 2.0 mL aliquots were taken for testing. The selected samples were studied using the developed physicochemical methods of active pharmaceutical ingredients analysis: titrimetric determination of ascorbic acid and spectrophotometric determination of the lysozyme hydrochloride content [ 27 ].…”

“…Eur. 9.0 Chapter 2.9.25 [ 26 ]) and chewing perception characteristics [ 27 ]. The propriety of the MCG preparation method involving the wet granulation step has been confirmed by mass and drug content uniformity tests [ 5 ].…”

“…The optimal compressing force was selected to be 7 kN, which allowed to obtain MCGs with good organoleptic, mechanical, textural, and release properties. Good release profiles of active pharmaceutical ingredients from the developed chewing gums were determined—“chewing” for 30 min led to almost complete their dissolution: 99.52 ± 0.33% of lysozyme hydrochloride and 98.31 ± 0.52% of ascorbic acid, which indicates their high bioavailability [ 27 ]. A somewhat lower result of ascorbic acid release can be explained by its tendency to get oxidized and, accordingly, its possible minor metabolism in the oral cavity.…”