Formulation Development and Evaluation of Calcium and Vitamin C Effervescent Tablet

Oral dosage forms are the most common route of drug administration despite has several disadvantages such as poor patient compliance, slow absorption etc. However, in liquid formulations problems such as stability concerns may arise and even slow onset of action. This gives an option for the use of effervescent tablets to overcome such problems. Effervesce is the evolution of bubbles in response of a chemical reaction. The most common reaction being acid base reaction between citric acid and sodium bicarbonate, giving us evolution of carbon dioxide bubbles in the presence of water. There are several advantages of making an effervescent formulation as they are already in liquid form so they are easier to administer. They may also be flavored to increase patient compliance. Due to less gastric irritation, the effervescent liquid can be very easily tolerated in the stomach and intestine. The main components of the formulation include active ingredients, mixture of acids or their salts, bicarbonates or carbonates or their salts which on addition of water gives CO2. The formulation also includes fillers, sweeteners, binders, flavoring agents and lubricants. The methods of preparation of effervescent tablets include wet granulation, fluidized bed granulation, fusion method and direct compression .Formulation requires controlled conditions of temperature and humidity a relative humidity of RH 25% or less and moderate temperature to prevent sticking of tablets or granules to machine as a result of absorbed moisture.