Experimentally Designed Optimization of Direct Compression Tablets

The work reported here describes the improvement of an industrial production of tablets formed by direct compression. This formulation contained 50% active substance of plant origin as a nonhygroscopic powder. The first step was to evaluate a number of direct compression excipients in preformulation tests and then make up a basic formulation providing tablets with correct characteristics. The second step was the optimization of the initial formulation using a two-level factorial experimental design. This enabled the best formulations to be selected objectively.