Background: Excipients with improved functionality have continued to be developed by the particle engineering\nstrategy of co-processing. The aim of this study was to evaluate the compaction and tableting properties of\ncomposite particles of microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) and crospovidone (CPV) engineered by co-processing.\nResults: Heckel analysis of the compaction behavior revealed a decrease in plasticity of co-processed excipient\n(CPE) when compared to MCC due to an increase in Heckel yield pressure from 144 to 172 MPa. The\ncompressibility-tabletability-compactibility (CTC) profile revealed a decrease in individual parameters for CPE when\ncompared to MCC. CPE was found to be more sensitive to the lubricant effect of sodium stearyl fumarate (SSF)\nwhen compared to MCC and less sensitive to magnesium stearate (MST) when compared to MCC. A higher dilution\npotential was obtained for MCC (60%) compared to 44% for CPE when metronidazole was used as model drug.\nTableting properties revealed that metronidazole tablets generated with CPE by direct compression disintegrated\nwithin 15 min and gave a rapid drug release when compared to MCC as a direct compression (DC) excipient.\nConclusion: The compaction and tableting properties of CPE were characterized and yielded tablets with better\ndisintegration and drug release profile when compared to MCC. This study, therefore, confirms the suitability\nof co-processing as a proven strategy in engineering the performance of excipients.\nKeywords: Particle engineering, Microcrystalline cellulose, Crospovidone, Compaction studies, Tablet
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