Maslii Yuliia, Kolisnyk Tetiana, Ruban Olena, Yevtifieieva Olga, Gureyeva Svitlana, Goy Andriy, Kasparaviciene Giedre, Kalveniene Zenona, Bernatoniene Jurga
Department of Industrial Technology of Drugs, National University of Pharmacy, 61002 Kharkiv, Ukraine.
Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, National University of Pharmacy, 61002 Kharkiv, Ukraine.
Pharmaceutics. 2021 Oct 29;13(11):1808. doi: 10.3390/pharmaceutics13111808.
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.
药用口香糖（MCGs）是实现用于牙齿预防和治疗药物的有益平台。本研究旨在研究压缩力对含有盐酸溶菌酶（LH）和抗坏血酸（AsA）的可压缩MCGs的机械、质地、释放和咀嚼感知特性的影响。在实验室单冲压片机上施加不同的力，即5、7、10和15 kN，获得了四批MCGs，并通过其几何参数、机械抗性、表面和内部结构特征、质地剖面、释放行为以及咀嚼过程中的感知属性进行评估。结果发现，增加压缩力对MCGs的抗粉碎性和易碎性影响较小，但会导致表面光滑，并形成一层更厚的、颗粒排列高度致密的层。根据质地分析，增加压缩力会使口香糖更硬且更具粘性，这表明咀嚼可能存在困难，从而损害其消费者属性。在从所得口香糖中更好地释放药物方面，较低的压缩力也被认为是更可取的。志愿者评估表明，压缩力的增加会显著提高初始硬度和易碎性，并降低咀嚼过程中整体口香糖质量形成的速率，这可能会对使用MCGs时的感知产生负面影响。基于所得结果，选择最佳压缩力为7 kN，这使得能够获得具有良好感官、机械、质地和释放性能MCGs。
