Effects of Phosphate Modified and Pregelatinized Sweet Potato Starches on Disintegrant Property of Paracetamol Tablet Formulations

Starch is the commonest disintegrant used in tablet formulation. Modified starches, also called starch derivatives, are prepared by physically, enzymatically or chemically treating native starch, thereby changing the properties of the starch. The aim of the study was to investigate the disintegrant property of Pregelatinized and Phosphate modified sweet potato starches in comparison with the native sweet potato starch and maize starch BP in paracetamol tablet formulation.Pregelatinized starch was prepared by drying 8% (w/v) sweet potato starch mucilage whilestarch phosphate was prepared by phosphorylation of sweet potato starch with monosodium phosphate dehydrate solution. The starches were evaluated for moisture content, swelling capacity, hydration capacity and flow properties while the tablet were assessed for disintegration time and dissolution rate using standard methods. Results obtained showed 82.22% yield of Pregelatinized starch and 83.33% of starch phosphate. The modified starches showed hydration capacities of 2.36 and 2.05 and swelling capacities of 6.25 and 4.48 respectively for PGS and SP, values that doubled those produced by unmodified sweet potato starch and maize starch B.P. The tablets formulated using 5.0%w/w concentrations of phosphate starch, pregelatinized starch, unmodified sweet potato starch and maize starch BP as disintegrant, respectively, disintegrated at 0.53min, 0.82min, 1.06min and 1.26min. Phosphate starch and Pregelatinized starch derived from sweet potato displayed superior disintegration properties than the unmodified starch and maize starch B.P.