How are pills, tablets, and caplets made?

These days, the majority of medications are in the form of pills, tablets, caplets, capsules or softgels. In the case of tablets, manufacturers have standard size molds for the precise size of their pill. During the manufacturing process, in addition to the active ingredients, the manufacturer will generally add a variety of excipients (other ingredients) to take up space (fillers), hold the ingredients together (binders), and assist in disintegration (disintegrants). It may even be necessary to coat the tablet so that the taste and odor are masked (coatings).

Fillers are necessary for the manufacturing process, but do nothing more for the pill itself than take up volume. The pill must be large enough for human fingers to readily handle. Even some small pills are quite a bit larger than the active ingredients they contain. Some common fillers are lactose (milk sugar), microcrystalline cellulose, corn starch, sugars (including sucrose, mannitol, sorbitol, fructose, dextrose), whey and yeast.

Binders are used to make the components stick together when the ingredients are compressed to make the pill. Some common binders are povidone, xanthan gum and Carbopol (an acrylic resin). Some fillers may also act as binding agents and are referred to as filler/binders.

Disintegrants facilitate the break-up of the tablet in the stomach. Some commonly used disintegrants are crospovidone, croscarmellose sodium and gellan gum.

Coatings help to prevent the tablet from dissolving too soon, thus breaking up in your mouth. They may also keep you from tasting or smelling the active ingredients. A common coating is shellac - the same as used on wood floors and boats!

Time-release capsules contain a variety of micro-pills that are designed to disintegrate in the stomach at different times. Each micro-pill has a little bit of active ingredient and fillers coated with a mixture of shellac and other compounds. The precise nature of the chemicals used in the coating controls the time the micro-pill takes to dissolve in the stomach.

The elliptical radiopaque densities scattered throughout the abdomen represent undissolved tablets. (Courtesy of Paul Van Wyk, DC, Denver, Colorado) From the medical text: Essentials of Skeletal Radiology, Terry R. Yochum, Lindsay J. Rowe.

Other ingredients, such as lubricants, colorants, flavors (in chewable tablets) and plasticizers, may also be used. Lubricants include magnesium stearate, stearic acid, sodium stearyl fumarate and hydrogenated vegetable oil. Lubricants help the tablet mass to compress more readily without sticking to the wall of the mold. The molds may also be sprayed with a releasing agent such as polyethylene glycol, which is another form of wax or grease to allow the pill to drop out of the mold. A variety of colorants may be used depending on the color of the tablet. Colorants or pigments include titanium dioxide (white) and iron oxides (red or yellow). Plasticizers are used to improve the flexibility of coatings so that they don't crack or chip. (You've probably noticed how small amounts of material will rub or chip off uncoated tablets, simply through handling of the pill bottle.)

In order to be acceptable for use in nutraceutical products, all the excipients used must be listed in either the USP (US Pharmacoepia) or NF (National Formulary) for products sold in the USA, or the EP (European Pharmacoepia) for products sold in Europe. The acceptable excipients are generally either food products (such as lactose, sugar or starch), or chemically inert ingredients that pass through the body without any effect (such as povidone, cellulose or titanium dioxide).

Normal tablets must meet U. S. Pharmaceutical standards here or European standards in Europe. This means the tablets must dissolve within 15 to 30 minutes once in your stomach. To test your tablets, place white vinegar (to simulate the stomach acid) in a dish or glass and drop in your pill. Check periodically. It should dissolve within 15 to 30 minutes to meet standards. If it doesn't, then you are paying a high price for fillers! You can keep this test up for 45 to 60 minutes, but if the pill is not dissolved by then, it is highly unlikely to be of any benefit to your body.

What are by-products?

By-products are second-hand substances derived from an original product. Brewer's Yeast is a leftover from the making of beer (where yeast is used to ferment the sugar). Many companies take these secondary products, put them in a white plastic bottle with a few other ingredients and label them with sensational sounding names - but really they are just waste products with little nutritional value. They may list the percentage of each component, but dirt is high in mineral contents too! Would you pay money for dirt?

Waste and Purity Analysis

CONCLUSION: WASTE MATERIAL RANGED FROM 45.5% TO 69% for each pill or gel cap in the top 3 brands.

Further Reading:

• Intra-Oral Spray -vs- Pills
• Spray Vitamins and Oral Absorption