Observations on the dissolution behavior of a tablet formulation: effect of compression forces

Two test drugs, hydrochlorothiazide and phenylbutazone, were separately incorporated into a standard formulation to study their disintegration and dissolution properties as a function of compression force. The increase in dissolution with force was attributed to the manner in which tablets disintegrated while dissolving. At a fixed press setting, tablets from the same compression cycle showed variations in their dissolution which were in agreement with the observed effects of force on dissolution. A linear correlation between dissolution efficiency and the logarithm of force was found to exist over the compression range studied.