Untitled Quiz

Physical Pharmaceutical Procedures

• Physical pharmaceutical procedures are a group of primary operations
• Pharmacists use these procedures to prepare pharmaceutical dosage forms in their final shape
• This ensures the patient can easily use the form to obtain the desired therapeutic effect
• Procedures are classified into mechanical and physical processes

Mechanical Pharmaceutical Processes

• Mechanical processes involve partitioning and separation (isolation)
• Partitioning: A preliminary process to decrease the size of pharmaceutical dosage form particles
• Separation (isolation): Separating particles based on size (cutting) without any intervention

Physical Pharmaceutical Processes

• Plain physical process: A basic physical process
• Processes needing cooling or heating: Physical processes requiring temperature change
• Processes needing solvents: Physical processes needing solvents

Detailed Demonstration of Classification

• Mechanical Pharmaceutical Processes
  • Partitioning: An essential process for preparing pharmaceutical dosage forms; it aims to decrease particle size
• Physical Pharmaceutical Process
  • Cutting: Cutting substances into smaller pieces using sharp instruments (e.g., laboratory scissors, hand cutters, scissors with parallel blades)
  • Impact: This method is used in partitioning hard and dried objects, yielding a finer product (e.g., gum)
  • Using hammers: Can be used for dried leaves for operation in a closed container
  • Pestle and mortar: Often made of iron, porcelain, or wood; used for substances needing grinding or mixing; oxidizing metallic salts should not be impacted in this mortar
  • Hammer mill: A strong, fast production method used in the pharmaceutical industry
  • Mortar with hanging pestle: Used for continuous operational impact

Attrition

• Levigation: Direct attrition using a hard, non-slip mortar and pestle; the procedure should occur on the mortar sides, followed by sifting for a fine powder; materials such as lead oxide or digitalis leaves can be used.
• Crushing: Uses mechanical or hand-operated mills for oil-containing substances like aniseed or coffee; used to break up materials
• Trituration: Mortar and pestle are suitable for soft, fatty substances
• Combined Attrition and Impact: Ball mills or fluid energy mills combine attrition and impact operations

Partitioning Liquids and Viscous Materials

• Homogenizers: Used to distribute liquids as very small droplets (e.g., emulsifying agents)
• Kneading machines: Used for viscous materials

Second: Separation

• Solid Separation:
  • Manually: Separating substances by hand; e.g., plant leaves from flowers, pebbles from lentils
  • By water: Light objects float, some dissolve and precipitate; e.g., separating almonds using water
  • By air: Removing light objects through exposure; sieving can separate different-sized objects
• Other separations: e.g., separating liquids from other liquids using decantation

Filtration

• Different filtration methods: Using funnels, papers, cloths, and various types of filters (Buchner funnels, sintered glass filters, Millipore filters). Filtration is used in the preparation of cheese, syrups, extracts, and separating bacteria from liquids (drug industry applications)

Clarification

• Technique involving isolating solids from liquids by adding chemical substances (like kaolin, talc, silica gel) to attract impurities leading to easy filtration