APPLICATION OF GELATIN IN HOLLOW CAPSULES

Hollow capsule

Hollow capsule is an important raw material for the outer packaging box of capsule medicine in the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry [1]. The hollow capsule is divided into two sections: cap capsule shell and body capsule shell. It is mainly used to contain solid drugs such as self-made medicine noodles, health products or drugs. The success of the hollow capsule helped the patients solve the difficulties of difficult safe passage and poor taste, and solved the constraint of good medicine.

So, everyone has been exposed to so many capsules for a long time. Do you know why the capsule shell can be taken? What is its composite material? Does it affect your body? Why should some drugs be made into capsules? Isn't it good to be lumpy? Next, we will eliminate the puzzles one by one and step into the world of capsule shell together!

Preparation of hollow capsules

At present, the global efficacy and function of hollow capsules are important, and animal origin is also the core. Its main component is Arabic gum. Efficacy and function Arabic gum is a milky white or light yellow solid concentrated from a part of collagen in the hoof of animal skin or human bones according to a series of treatment. It has no color, no smell, can dissolve boiling water, and has various characteristics such as colloidal suspicion, solid-water solubility, solubility and so on. More than 95% of Chinese capsules are also animal gum arabic hollow capsules. Since gum Arabic is so strange, let's have a good look.

The molecular formula of collagen protein is a gram-negative bacterium established by the mutual winding of three polypeptide chains. According to the treatment of production and processing technology, the molecular formula of collagen protein is transformed into a polypeptide chain（ α- Chain) α- Composition and consists of two α Chain composition β- Composition and composition α Chain composition γ- Composition, and in period and less than α- Composition or excess γ- Molecular chain fragments of components. It can be seen that Arabic gum is a polydispersive system with a certain relative molecular weight. Its relative molecular weight varies due to differences in standards and specifications, and affects the biochemical characteristics of Arabic gum.

(1) Ammonia alkali Arabic gum: the method of preparing Arabic gum with alkaline solution to solve the raw materials containing collagen protein is called ammonia alkali method. It generally refers to the quicklime powder method and sodium hydroxide solution method. The quicklime powder method is used to produce Arabic gum from pork skin. The production process is generally as follows: raw material finishing - lime powder prepreg - degreasing of Hydropower Station - lime powder prepreg - cleaning and melting - glue boiling - concentration, bleaching solution and suspected gelatinization.

#2

(2) Acid Arabic gum: the method of preparing Arabic gum by acid leaching to hydrolyze collagen into active peptides with different relative molecular weight is called acid method. Acid Arabic gum mainly selects hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, ammonium sulfate, lactic acid bacteria beverage, sodium citrate, glacial acetic acid and other single or composite acids to deal with the expansion of raw materials in the pre production process, and further uses acid or strong acid to destroy intermolecular thermal polymerization and crack molecular bonds, so as to melt the skin into the acid solution, also known as gum extraction.

#3

(3) Enzymatic Arabic gum: the method of preparing Arabic gum by dissolving collagen with enzyme treatment is called enzymatic method. The crushed bone or skin collagen protein is treated with an enzyme solution, and then stirred in an acidic solution to obtain a collagen solution, which is then alkali melted to the isoelectric point of collagen or hydrolyzed with salt protein to obtain the accumulation of synthetic fibers of collagen protein. After extraction and accumulation, it is heated up to obtain Arabic gum. The other is enzymatic Liming, The enzyme solution is used to replace the sodium bisulfate in the traditional alkali gum to treat collagen, osteogen or skin, and then carry out the remaining production process in the traditional form. This kind of technical method is more suitable for the preparation of bone Arabic gum than the first method. General manufacturing process of enzymatic gel: leather products - Preparation and solution - Enzymatic Hydrolysis - Enzymatic stainless steel passivation - colloidal solution - separation and purification - finished products.

Why can I take it?

The hollow capsule is made from the key raw material of efficacy and function Arabic gum plus auxiliary materials such as melanocytes, tackifiers and tackifiers [2], and its important raw material Arabic gum is also suitable for the growth and development of microorganisms, which is easy to be contaminated by external microorganisms, such as highly pathogenic anaerobic bacteria, orange glucose, water gram-negative Streptococcus and Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, Aspergillus flavus, etc. cause the decay, deterioration, gasification and mildew of fruit adhesive. In order to solve the difficulty of serious environmental pollution caused by hollow capsule microorganisms, at present, most of the hollow capsule microbial sterilization methods of Arabic gum hollow capsule manufacturing enterprises use ethylene oxide (EO) gas sterilization of the finished hollow capsule.

As early as 2000, the Chinese Pharmacopoeia included the product quality specification website of Arabic gum hollow capsules, aiming at microbial indicators, such as total bacterial count, intestinal Ehrlich bacterial count, Aspergillus flavus and yeast count; And the physical and chemical properties of hollow capsules, such as brittleness, viscosity, disintegration time limit and tightness, are specified in detail. By 2010, the Chinese Pharmacopoeia had adjusted the product quality specifications of Arabic gum hollow capsules, improved the inspection items such as ethylene oxide composition, freezing force and chromium, and improved the latest detection items of Salmonella. Therefore, when taking capsules, don't worry about the risks or the strange difficulties of digestion.

Although Arabic gum capsule has many advantages, it also has disadvantages:

1) Due to the isomerism of functional groups such as aldehyde group, imine or macrolide, the capsule is easy to cause thermal polymerization during storage, resulting in relatively stable Arabic gum Internet technology, reducing the total mixing of the capsule and reducing its dissolution;

2) Arabic gum comes from animal skin or bone, so it is inconvenient for vegetarians to take medicine;

3) The raw material of Arabic gum capsule shell comes from animal skin or bone, which is easy to spread infectious sponge tissue neurological symptoms - mad cow disease; 4) The industrial equipment characteristics of soft capsule capsule shell are vulnerable to weather and water - the addition of tackifier in the capsule shell improves the oxygen market share and the transfer of water between the capsule shell and the capsule contents. A small amount of water change will cause great damage to the total mixing of drugs;

5) There is also drug migration in soft capsules. Therefore, it is necessary to find modified engineering plastics Arabic gum or Arabic gum substitutes to improve the defects of Arabic gum capsules.

The alternatives of Arabic gum capsules include gum (konjac gum, Arabic gum, etc.), microbial gum (konjac gum, gellan gum, etc.), algae gum (konjac gum, alginate phosphate, etc.), cassava starch, etc.

‍