Pharmacists sometimes open capsules and dispense them as a powder formulation at the request of a physician or patient. Currently, two methods are used to remove the contents from capsules: capsule-opening, in which the capsule is decapsulated manually, and capsule-crushing, in which the capsule is crushed by a tablet crusher. However, the former requires time-consuming work, while the latter results in the contamination of lots of capsule shells. In this study, we propose a new dispensing method to obtain powders with less capsule shell by using a multi-purpose dispensing mixer as a new crushing mechanism. Aprindine hydrochloride capsules were used as a model drug, and after being placed in a tablet grinding container, they were set in the multi-purpose mixer and crushed at 1,200 rpm for a predetermined time (30, 45, or 60 s). The contents were discharged onto a sieve with a 500 µm opening, and manually sieved. The resulting powder under the sieve and the capsule shell remaining on the sieve were weighed. Then, sachets were prepared from the powders and evaluated for product uniformity. The results showed that more than 96% of the capsules were crushed in the first run, regardless of the crushing time, and no uncrushed capsules were found after a second run. The yields of the powders were more than 97%, which were equivalent to the capsule-opening method. The capsule shell contamination rate for the powders was less than 0.33%. Furthermore, the dispensed sachets were found to be uniform. A new capsule-removing method has been established.
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