Views: 413 Author: Site Editor Publish Time: 2021-04-01 Origin: Site
For a long time, gelatin has been the main raw material of hollow capsules (which can be made by auto capsule filling machine or capsule maker machine). It has some natural advantages, for example, a wide range of raw materials, excellent film-forming performance. In addition, gelatin meets the requirements of medicine and is easy to be absorbed and swallowed by human body.
Traditional gelatin materials also have some problems. For example, it comes from mammals and carries the risk of BSV. Moreover, it has high water content (12.5 - 17.5%), sensitive to temperature and humidity, and may produce crosslinking reaction. The crosslinked gelatin is not easy to dissolve in water, which will affect the disintegration and dissolution of the capsule. High humidity, high temperature, in contact with aldehydes and ultraviolet light may catalyze the crosslinking reaction.
In recent years, new medicine capsule making materials have been developed, including some polymers, such as hydroxypropyl methylcellulose and pullulan.
HPMC is odorless and tasteless. It is white or milky white fibrous or granular powder. It is derived from velveteen or wood pulp, soluble in cold water, almost insoluble in organic solvents such as anhydrous ethanol. It has been collected as pharmaceutical excipients in Pharmacopoeia of many countries. It can be utilized as coating material, stabilizer, tackifier and so on. It is widely applied in oral preparation and local preparation. Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose hollow capsules made by small automatic capsule filling machine and electric capsule filling machine have obvious advantages. It comes from plants and has no risk of carrying BSV. The water content of the capsule is low and there is no brittleness. More importantly, it has stable chemical properties, no cross-linking reaction, good membrane adhesion, and is more suitable for coating. Now there are many successful application examples on the market, such as natural herbal vegetable capsule.
Pullulan is a colorless, tasteless and odorless macromolecular substance. It is made by fermentation of starch or sugar. It is soluble in water and insoluble in organic solvents. It belongs to plant origin and has very low oxygen permeability, which can effectively protect the easy capsule filler which is easy to be oxidized. And its chemical properties are stable and there is no cross-linking reaction. In the past two years, a Japanese enterprise has launched 140 products using pullulan polysaccharide hollow capsules.
Pfizer Capsule Company is the first company in the world to develop non gelatin capsules. Its main raw material is hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose (HPMC) from plants. It is suitable not only for European and American people, but also for Muslims, Hindus, Jews and Buddhists. After Vcaps came into the market, the sales volume increased rapidly.
After Pfizer Capsule, French Kapoog Capsule Company launched the second new plant capsule NPcaps, and quickly established its foothold in the international capsule market. This product is made from pullulan, a plant-derived polysaccharide. Plant polysaccharides not only have good water solubility, colorless and tasteless, but also can be completely biodegradable in human digestive tract. The empty automatic capsule has many advantages, such as low oxygen permeability, suitable for machine filling, no chemical reaction with capsule filler powder in the capsule shell, and suitable for any population. NPcaps has been welcomed by preparation plants all over the world since its launch. The annual sales volume increased rapidly, and the annual output reached about 10 billion.
After the United States and France, Japan has also developed its own new gelatin free capsule product Quali-V. According to the manufacturer, the raw material of the product is also HPMC. At present, vegetable capsule occupies about 3% market share in international capsule shell market.
According to experts' estimation, the application of non gelatin capsules will grow rapidly in the world in the next 5 to 10 years, and the total market will expand. For example, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose hollow capsules made by commercial capsule filling machine, auger capsule filling machine, etc., have an annual growth rate of more than 25% due to its low moisture content, high stability, and the increasing number of vegetarian consumers.
