Aspirin Cont.

The diagram shows the first three steps in aspirin manufacture: 

1) Weighing

2) Mixing

3) Dry Screening

Story of Aspirin A wonderful 100years old drug.

15th March 2011
Tuesday 09:30 PM

Today due to Kanshi Ram Jayanti, the college was closed. But somehow I was very busy in my domestic work.

I would like to share some of the very interesting facts and the technical details of one of the oldest medicines. that is none other than

ASPIRIN

Aspirin is one of the safest and least expensive pain relievers on the marketplace. While other pain relievers were discovered and manufactured before aspirin, they only gained acceptance as over-the-counter drugs in Europe and the United States after aspirin's success at the turn of the twentieth century.

Today, Americans alone consume 16,000 tons of aspirin tablets a year, equaling 80 million pills, and we spend about $2 billion a year for non-prescription pain relievers, many of which contain aspirin or similar drugs.

Currently, the drug is available in several dosage forms in various concentrations from .0021 to .00227 ounces (60 to 650 milligrams), but the drug is most widely used in tablet form. Other dosage forms include capsules, caplets, suppositories and liquid elixir.

Aspirin can be used to fight a host of health problems: cerebral thromboses (with less than one tablet a day); general pain or fever (two to six tablets a day; and diseases such as rheumatic fever, gout, and rheumatoid arthritis. The drug is also beneficial in helping to ward off heart attacks. In addition, biologists use aspirin to interfere with white blood cell action, and molecular biologists use the drug to activate genes.

The wide range of effects that aspirin can produce made it difficult to pinpoint how it actually works, and it wasn't until the 1970s that biologists hypothesized that aspirin and related drugs (such as ibuprofen) work by inhibiting the synthesis of certain hormones that cause pain and inflammation. Since then, scientists have made further progress in understanding how aspirin works. They now know, for instance, that aspirin and its relatives actually prevent the growth of cells that cause inflammation.

History

The compound from which the active ingredient in aspirin was first derived, salicylic acid, was found in the bark of a willow tree in 1763 by Reverend Edmund Stone of Chipping-Norton, England. (The bark from the willow tree—Salix Alba—contains high levels of salicin, the glycoside of salicylic acid.) Earlier accounts indicate that Hippocrates of ancient Greece used willow leaves for the same purpose—to reduce fever and relieve the aches of a variety of illnesses.

During the 1800s, various scientists extracted salicylic acid from willow bark and produced the compound synthetically. Then, in 1853, French chemist Charles F. Gerhardt synthesized a primitive form of aspirin, a derivative of salicylic acid. In 1897 Felix Hoffmann, a German chemist working at the Bayer division of I.G. Farber, discovered a better method for synthesizing the drug. Though sometimes Hoffmann is improperly given credit for the discovery of aspirin, he did understand that aspirin was an effective pain reliever that did not have the side effects of salicylic acid (it burned throats and upset stomachs).

Bayer marketed aspirin beginning in 1899 and dominated the production of pain relievers until after World War I, when Sterling Drug bought German-owned Bayer's New

The first three steps in aspirin manufacture: weighing, mixing, and dry screening. Mixing can be done in a Glen Mixer, which both blends the ingredients and expels the air from them. In dry screening, small batches are forced through a wire mesh screen by hand, while larger batches can be screened in a Fitzpatrick mill.

York operations. Today, "Aspirin" is a registered trademark of Bayer in many countries around the world, but in the United States and the United Kingdom aspirin is simply the common name for acetylsalicylic acid.

The manufacture of aspirin has paralleled advancements in pharmaceutical manufacturing as a whole, with significant mechanization occurring during the early twentieth century. Now, the manufacture of aspirin is highly automated and, in certain pharmaceutical companies, completely computerized.

While the aspirin production process varies between pharmaceutical companies, dosage forms and amounts, the process is not as complex as the process for many other drugs. In particular, the production of hard aspirin tablets requires only four ingredients: the active ingredient (acetylsalicylic acid), corn starch, water, and a lubricant.

Raw Materials

To produce hard aspirin tablets, corn starch and water are added to the active ingredient (acetylsalicylic acid) to serve as both a binding agent and filler, along with a lubricant. Binding agents assist in holding the tablets together; fillers (diluents) give the tablets increased bulk to produce tablets of adequate size. A portion of the lubricant is added during mixing and the rest is added after the tablets are compressed. Lubricant keeps the mixture from sticking to the machinery. Possible lubricants include: hydrogenated vegetable oil, stearic acid, talc, or aluminum stearate. Scientists have performed considerable investigation and research to isolate the most effective lubricant for hard aspirin tablets.

Chewable aspirin tablets contain different diluents, such as mannitol, lactose, sorbitol, sucrose, and inositol, which allow the tablet to dissolve at a faster rate and give the drug a pleasant taste. In addition, flavor agents, such as saccharin, and coloring agents are added to chewable tablets. The colorants currently approved in the United States include: FD&C Yellow No. 5, FD&C Yellow No. 6, FD&C Red No.3, FD&C Red No. 40, FD&C Blue No. 1, FD&C Blue No. 2, FD&C Green No. 3, a limited number of D&C colorants, and iron oxides.

The Manufacturing
Process

Aspirin tablets are manufactured in different shapes. Their weight, size, thickness, and hardness may vary depending on the amount of the dosage. The upper and lower surfaces of the tablets may be flat, round, concave, or convex to various degrees. The tablets may also have a line scored down the middle of the outer surface, so the tablets can be broken in half, if desired. The tablets may be engraved with a symbol or letters to identify the manufacturer.

Aspirin tablets of the same dosage amount are manufactured in batches. After careful weighing, the necessary ingredients are mixed and compressed into units of granular mixture called slugs. The slugs are then filtered to remove air and lumps, and are compressed again (or punched) into numerous individual tablets. (The number of tablets will depend on the size of the batch, the dosage amount, and the type of tablet machine used.) Documentation on each batch is kept throughout the manufacturing process, and finished tablets undergo several tests before they are bottled and packaged for distribution.

The procedure for manufacturing hard aspirin tablets, known as dry-granulation or slugging, is as follows:

Weighing

• 1 The corn starch, the active ingredient, and the lubricant are weighed separately in sterile canisters to determine if the ingredients meet pre-determined specifications for the batch size and dosage amount.

Mixing

• 2 The corn starch is dispensed into cold purified water, then heated and stirred until a translucent paste forms. The corn starch, the active ingredient, and part of the lubricant are next poured into one sterile canister, and the canister is wheeled to a mixing machine called a Glen Mixer. Mixing blends the ingredients as well as expels air from the mixture.
• 3 The mixture is then mechanically separated into units, which are generally from 7/8 to 1 inches (2.22 to 2.54 centimeters) in size. These units are called slugs.

Dry screening

• 4 Next, small batches of slugs are forced through a mesh screen by a hand-held stainless steel spatula. Large batches in sizable manufacturing outlets are filtered through a machine called a Fitzpatrick mill. The remaining lubricant is added to the mixture, which is blended gently in a rotary granulator and sifter. The lubricant keeps the mixture from sticking to the tablet machine during the compression process.

Compression

• 5 The mixture is compressed into tablets either by a single-punch machine (for small batches) or a rotary tablet machine (for large scale production). The majority of single-punch machines are power-driven, but hand-operated models are still available. On single-punch machines, the mixture is fed into one tablet mold (called a dye cavity) by a feed shoe, as follows:
• The feed shoe passes over the dye cavity and releases the mixture. The feed shoe then retracts and scrapes all excess mixture away from the dye cavity.
• A punch—a short steel rod—the size of the dye cavity descends into the dye, compressing the mixture into a tablet. The punch then retracts, while a punch below

This drawing illustrates the principle of compression in a single-punch machine. First, the aspirin mixture is fed into a dye cavity. Then, a steel punch descends into the cavity and compresses the mixture into a tablet. As the punch retracts, another punch below the cavity rises to eject the tablet.the dye cavity rises into the cavity and ejects the tablet.
As the feed shoe returns to fill the dye cavity again, it pushes the compressed tablet from the dye platform.

• On rotary tablet machines, the mixture runs through a feed line into a number of dye cavities which are situated on a large steel plate. The plate revolves as the mixture is dispensed through the feed line, rapidly filling each dye cavity. Punches, both above and below the dye cavities, rotate in sequence with the rotation of the dye cavities. Rollers on top of the upper punches press the punches down onto the dye cavities, compressing the mixture into tablets, while roller-activated punches beneath the dye cavities lift up and eject the tablets from the dye platform.

Testing

• 6 The compressed tablets are subjected to a tablet hardness and friability test, as well as a tablet disintegration test (see Quality Control section below).

Bottling and packaging

• 7 The tablets are transferred to an automated bottling assembly line where they are dispensed into clear or color-coated polyethylene or polypropylene plastic bottles or glass bottles. The bottles are topped with cotton packing, sealed with a sheer aluminum top, and then sealed with a plastic and rubber child-proof lid. A sheer, round plastic band is then affixed to the circular edge of the lid. It serves as an additional seal to discourage and detect product tampering.
• 8 The bottles are then labeled with product information and an expiration date is affixed. Depending on the manufacturer, the bottles are then packaged in individual cardboard boxes. The packages or bottles are then boxed in larger cardboard boxes in preparation for distribution to distributors.

Finished aspirin tablets often have a line "scored" down the center so that the tablet can be broken into two parts with ease.

Quality Control

Maintaining a high degree of quality control is extremely important in the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry, as well as required by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). All machinery is sterilized before beginning the production process to ensure that the product is not contaminated or diluted in any way. In addition, operators assist in maintaining an accurate and even dosage amount throughout the production process by performing periodic checks, keeping meticulous batch records, and administering necessary tests. Tablet thickness and weight are also controlled.

Once the tablets have been produced, they undergo several quality tests, such as tablet hardness and friability tests. To ensure that the tablets won't chip or break under normal conditions, they are tested for hardness in a machine such as the Schleuniger (or Heberlein) Tablet Hardness Tester. They are also tested for friability, which is the ability of the tablet to withstand the rigors of packaging and shipping. A machine called a Roche Friabilator is used to perform this test. During the test, tablets are tumbled and exposed to repeated shocks.

Another test is the tablet disintegration test. To ensure that the tablets will dissolve at the desirable rate, a sample from the batch is placed in a tablet disintegration tester such as the Vanderkamp Tester. This apparatus consists of six plastic tubes open at the top and bottom. The bottoms of the tubes are covered with a mesh screen. The tubes are filled with tablets and immersed in water at 37 degrees Fahrenheit (2.77 degrees Celsius) and retracted for a specified length of time and speed to determine if the tablets dissolve as designed.

Approval of "Institute of Pharmacy, HCPG College, by "Pharmacy Council of India"

13th March 2011.
08:00 PM

I was busy in some desk work, suddenly my land-line phone started ringing. I picked up the cradle, I heard the voice of Prof. O.P.Tiwari, principal of my college and moreover, he is a philosopher, guide and friend for me. It is MR. Tiwari who brought me to this college from BBDNITM, Lucknow.

He congratulated me for the approval of the college by PCI. It was really a great news for us. I would also like to congratulate all the faculties whose hard work and dedication made it to happen. Last but not least I would also like to pay my gratitude to Mr. A. K. Srivastava, Associate Professor, Dept. of Pharmaceutis, IT, BHU, Varanasi for the help in this regard.

I have already uploaded the screen shot of the same for your perusal.

         Unique Identification Number of PCI

Photographs of My College

Some of The Photographs of the Faculties

Institute of Pharmacy, HCPG College, Bawan Beegha, Varanasi.

8rth March 2011, 08:30 PM

It was a very hectic day.I was preparing the lectures of Pharm. Biotechnology and Pharm. Marketing Management that is an elective paper. I took the lectures of final semester of B.Pharm.

I finished the classes at around 12:10 PM. I came to my room. Mr. Lalit Pratap Singh was there in the room. Mr. Lalit to whom I fondly call as LP was my student turned colleague greeted me. A jolly natured person from Bhabhua, Bihar. A postgraduate in Pharmacy with specialization in Pharmaceutical Chemistry.Let me tell that Lalitji is very fond of food specially non veg and chicken is his weakness. Mr. L. P. Singh

He has seen my blog and congratulated me. It was his request that I am writing about my college leaving the "History and Evolution of Pharmacy." Mr. Lalit is having lot of regards and affection for seniors.

Moreover I would like to show the photograph of my college and some of my colleagues.

History and Evolution of Pharmacy

7th March,07:40 PM

I came back from my college around 05:00 PM exhausted. As the roads of Varanasi are taking a new shape.At every nook and corner one can find huge cranes and digging machines running day and night under the Ganga Pradushan Programme.

There are lot of crowds in the market.After having a bite of snacks and tea I thought to continue to write The History and evolution of pharmacy profession.I hope that the students of first year will find it interesting.

Pharmacy profession has existed in a rudimentary form from time immemorial. It is very difficult to determine when it started. Greeks were one of the first patrons of this profession. The word pharmacy originated from the Greek word "PHARMACON"

In ancient times, diseases were thought to be produced by evil forces or by a God’s anger.

Thus, religious persons or magicians were found to be associated with the treatment of patients. So called super-natural activities and / or religious rituals always accompanied with the drug treatment.

On their earliest times, the practice of pharmacy and medicine were indistinguishable.

Prehistoric man possibly swallowed plants ( bark, roots, leaves ) to relieve indigestion or applied leaf or mud to protect and soothe bruised skin.

Such activities resulted in the discoveries of many drugs and devising of many drug products.

The physical forms of medications have not so much changed; the approach of people towards using medicines has drastically changed.

Development of Pharmacy

There are three stages of development of pharmacy.

1) Ancient Ages

2) Middle Ages

3) Modern Ages

Please see the picture of prehistoric men treating wounds with bark of plants.



Oh, its time for dinner, my wife is calling for dinner.I will continue this topic tomorrow.

Good night, Subhratri

A Brief Notes of Graduate Course in Pharmacy Education in India

7th March 2011: 04:30 AM
Before I start writing let me pray to almighty for the success of the mission for this BLOG. This blog is a platform for the Students of Pharmacy as well as the Professionals working in various positions in the Pharmaceutical field.
I would like to salute the great visionary Pt. Madan Mohan Malviya who started the graduation course of pharmacy first time in India in the year 1932. The Banaras Hindu University became the first institution in India to run a degree level course in Pharmacy.
It was zeal and enthusiasm of Late Professor M.L.Schroff and whose contributions and vision had made to fulfill the Mahamana’s mission successful. One has not to forget the work of none other than Late Prof. G. P.Srivastava who also has contributed a lot to the Pharmacy Education.