Evaluation of Binding Properties of <I>Phoenix dactylifera</I> (Date Palm) in Tablet Production

Background: Phoenix dactylifera (Date Palm) is one of the earliest fruit crops growing in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, and the Middle East. PD is important as it is a high-energy food. It has chemical constituents which have medicinal purposes including antioxidant, anti-mutagenic, anti- inflammatory, anti-cancer activities, anti-analgesic, antipyretic, and protection against colds, sorethroat and fever. Most times, natural products are also used for pharmaceutical excipients apart from medicinal purposes. Binders are dry powders or liquids incorporated into powders during the process of wet granulation to produce granules. It gives the tablet tensile stability. Binders can be applied to the powder in a variety of methods prior to wet agglomeration to ensure equal distribution. There are many sources of natural binders such as starch, pre gelatinized starch, gelatin, acacia, tragacanth and gums. Hence, this study isaimed at evaluating the binding effect of PD mucilage in granules and tablet and comparing it with binding effect of acacia. Methods: Granules containing dried PD and acacia at various concentrations (2, 4, 6 and 8 %) as a binder were prepared by wet granulation method. Corn starch and lactose were mixed in a mortar and the Sodium salicylate was then added as active pharmaceutical ingredient. The mixtures were moistened with the appropriate amount of binder solution prepared in distilled water. The granules were prepared by the conventional method. Evaluation of granules including physical examination, flow rate, angle of repose, bulk density, tapped density, Carr's compressibility index and Hausner ratio (HR) were carried out. Tableting of the granules were carried out. Evaluation of tablets for various properties such as weight uniformity, disintegration time test and dissolution test were also done. Results: Angle of repose of all batches of granules of PD and acacia was 25 - 40 .The optimal concentration of PD granules was 4% which has Carr's compressibility index as 9.25% and HR as 1.10 while acacia granules was 8% with Carr's compressibility index as15.51% and HR as 1.18. All the batches of PD and acacia gum tablets passed weight uniformity and friability tests. All the PD had disintegration time above 15 min which is contrary to Acacia tablets. All the PD tablets had slow drug release when compared with acacia tablets. Conclusion: Based on the findings from investigation carried out, granules containing PD of 4% concentration showed good flow property which is better than acacia granules of 8%. However, all the PD tablets at various concentrations had good tableting properties with exception of long disintegration times and slower drug release when compared with acacia tablets