The pulverization of tablets for the preparation of pediatric medicines causes problems with respect to content uniformity and amount of the main ingredient. We compared these 2 factors in a pediatric medicine prepared by 2 methods: tablet grinding and tablet dilution. We also investigated causes of drug loss by means of high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).
Three pharmacists prepared cortril powder by each method. When the main ingredient content was calculated by quantitative analysis by means of HPLC, there was no significant difference between the 2 methods, and adhesion to the mortar and the package were considered to be major reasons for drug loss.
We also examined the effect of the amount of diluent on the loss of the main ingredient in the grinding process, finding that increasing the amount of diluent minimized the loss of the main ingredient content. When the amount of diluent per package was 1.5g, the main ingredient content was 90.8% (n=3).
These results suggest that when dispensing small amounts of ground tablets, more attention should be paid to the amount of diluting agents than to the grinding technique.
