Types of Dosage Forms in

Pharmaceutical Industry
The term Dosage form is rather recent and appears to be replacing the expression Pharmaceutical
preparation. A dosage form of a drug is a product designed for administration to the body in the
diagnosis or treatment of disease. Giving a proper dosage form to a drug is needed for
administration of drug safely to the body without any destruction to drug or any harmful effect to
body. Destruction to drug here means that some drugs become inactive or get destructs when given
orally due to gastric acid. Sometimes some drugs affect gastric lining or mucosa and are not
intended for oral use hence it should be changed to other dosage form, for example Injections. One
drug may have more than one dosage form for different route of administration. Knowledge of
these is essential for successful prescription writing and achieving the maximal therapeutic
response from a drug. Let us consider some of the most important dosage forms.

VEHICLES:

The vehicles or solvents are used for the purpose of:

• Dissolving and rendering drugs more palatable

• To provide extended release and/or extended drug action
• To protect the drug from external influences eg. Moisture, temperature variation

Waters, syrups and elixirs are important vehicles.

Waters are aqueous solutions of volatile substances, usually volatile oils. They are excellent
solvents for saline drugs such as salicylates. They are used as vehicles in prescriptions intended
for digestive disorders. Typical waters are peppermint, cinnamon and spearmint.

Syrups are solutions of flavouring or medicinal substances in a nearly saturated solution of sucrose
in water. Members of flavouring syrups are cheery, tolu etc. flavouring agents are mainly used to
mask nauseating medicines.
Elixirs are hydroalcoholic solutions of medicinal substances sweetened and flavoured. Aromatic
elixir, simple elixir, orange elixir is the main solvent of this class. Elixirs are excellent solvents for
many drugs and mask the disagreeable odours and tastes of many substances dissolved in them for
example phenobarbital elixir.

AQUEOUS SOLUTIONS

The aqueous solutions can be divided into two categories.

The first is the class of dosage form known as a solution and is intended for oral use. The second
is the class known as an injection and is intended for parenteral use, ie., to be injected under the
skin or into the muscles or veins.

Injections are a class of sterile liquids or suspensions which are packaged in containers (sealed
glass ampoules or vials) which will maintain the sterility and are intended for parenteral
administration.

In the pharmacopeia, “The sterile preparations for parenteral use are grouped in five distinct
classes, defined as follows:

1. Solutions of medicaments suitable for injection, referred to by titles of the form,

Injection
2. Dry solids which, upon the addition of suitable solvents, yield solutions conforming in
all respects to the requirements for injections and which are distinguished by titles of
the form, for injection
3. Solids which are suspended in a suitable fluid medium and which are not to be injected
intravenously or into the spinal canal, distinguished by titles of the form, Sterile
Suspension.
4. Dry solids which, upon the addition of suitable solvents, yield preparations conforming
in all respects to the requirements for Sterile suspensions and which are distinguished
by titles of the form, Sterile for Suspension
 5. Emulsions of fluids in fluid media, suitable for parenteral administration, which are not
to be injected into the spinal canal and which are distinguished by titles of the form,
Sterile Emulsion

AQUEOUS SUSPENSIONS

The aqueous suspensions are classified as emulsions and mixtures. Emulsions are suspensions of
insoluble liquid substances; while mixtures are dispersions of insoluble solid substances. In each
class as a rule a protective colloid is added to increase stability.

Emulsions contain fixed oil suspended in water with an emulsifying agent added. The oil is
dispersed through the aqueous solution of the emulsifying agent. The oil particles are small and
because they are coated, they are not disagreeable to the taste. Emulsified oils are more easily
digested than undispersed oils. For example, cod liver emulsion and mineral oil emulsion.

Mixtures: any solid material suspended in a liquid is designated as a mixture. Chalk mixture is a
member of this class. Milk of magnesia and aluminium hydroxide gel may be considered mixtures.
Dense mixtures of precipitates and supernatant fluid such as these preparations are magmas.

ALCOHOLIC SOLUTIONS

Spirits and essences are alcoholic solutions of volatile medicaments, usually volatile oils. Spirits
are often prepared simply by diluting 10 volumes of oil with 90 volumes of alcohol. Very popular
household remedies are peppermint spirit, lemon spirit, and aromatic ammonia spirit.

These preparations are high in alcoholic content and must be diluted with water before ingested.

EXTRACTIVE PREPARATIONS

Extractive preparations are made from vegetable drugs. Extractive preparations, as the name
suggests, contain the extracted medicinal virtues from leaves, bark, roots, or other parts of the
plant. The solvent which is called menstrum, is alcohol or a mixture of alcohol and water. There
are three dosage forms in this class of extractive preparations.
Tinctures are alcoholic or hydroalcoholic extractive preparations of vegetable drugs. When made
from potent drugs they represent 10 percent of the drug from which they are prepared. When the
drug is non-potent, the tincture is prepared at twice the strength, or 20 percent.

Fluidextracts are alcoholic or hydroalcoholic extractive preparations of vegetable drugs, prepared

as such strength that 1 ml of the fluid extract represent 1 gm. of the dried drug.

Extratcs may be obtained by evaporating the solvent from tinctures or fluidextracts. They are
plastic in character or may be completely dried and powdered for example Belladonna extract,
cascara extract.

SOLID DOSAGE FORMS

Powders. Many medicinal substances are insoluble in the pharmaceutical solvents water, alcohol,
and glycerin. Materials of this kind are administered in their pulverulent form. These are called
powders. Powders may be mixed with sodium bicarbonate and tartaric acid and citric acids. When
mixed with water, the mixed powder effervesces and charges the water with carbon dioxide, giving
the dosage form palatability; such a powder is called an effervescent powder. The dose of
effervescent powder may be compressed into a tablet. Powders can be used internally or externally.
External powders are applied locally as dusting powders.

Capsules. Powders may be packed into hard gelatin capsules. The resulting dosage form is called
a capsule. These are tasteless, readily swallowed, and rapidly disintegrate in the stomach, where
they discharge their contents. These are available in various sizes and are most popular dosage
forms.

Delayed action capsules. A useful dosage form for drug whose drug particles are coated with an
agent that provides intermittent release of the drug in the gastrointestinal tract. After ingestion
some of the particles disintegrate immediately, others after 2 to 4 hours, and still others after 6 to
8 hours. This dosage form provides uniform medication over a period of 10-12 hours.

Tablets. Powders may be subjected to mechanical pressures and compressed into small discoid
shapes known as tablets. Most compressed tablets contain a tablet filler composed of some inert
binding material. Dried starch is frequently added, when comes in contact with water it swells,
causing the tablet to disintegrate immediately. Tablets may be coated with gelatin, sugar or other
coatings suitable for improving their taste.

Pills. When powdered drugs are mixed with adhesive substances like glucose or honey, they may
be kneaded into a firm and adhesive mass. This may be cut into desirable weights and moulded
into spherical or avoid forms called pills. These become hard upon drying.

SKIN AND MUCOUS MEMBRANE DOSAGE FORMS

The dosage forms intended for application to the skin or mucous membranes may be divided into
liniments, lotions, ointments, creams, suppositories.

Liniments are liquid preparations applied to the skin by rubbing and producing heat. They consist
of one or more active ingredients and a liniment base or vehicle. The base is generally a bland of
fixed oil or alcohol. The massage of the skin is an important feature of liniment therapy. Camphor
liniment, camphor and soap liniment are popular.

Lotions liquid preparations applied to the skin without rubbing. The base is usually aqueous.
Glycerine and suspending agents are frequently used. After application, fluid is permitted to
evaporate from the skin, leaving a film of the dissolved or suspended ingredients. Calamine lotion
is best example.

Ointments are semi-solid, grease-like substances intended for local application to the skin. They
may be applied to the mucous membrane also. There are ointment bases which are miscible with
water. One of these is hydrophilic ointment. Most ointments are applied as local agents to serve as
astringents, antiseptics, and protective.

Suppositories are solid preparations for administration to body cavities. There are rectal, vaginal
and urethral suppositories. The most common are oil of theobroma (cacao butter) and glycerinated
gelatin. Theobroma is fixed oil which is solid at room temperature but which melts at body
temperature. They usually weigh 2 gm. Rectal suppositories may be used to elicit systemic effects
of their active ingredients. The rectal dose is usually double the oral dose. Vaginal suppositories
contain glycerinated gelatin as a base and are usually conical or spherical in shape, they weigh
from 4 to 10 gm.