Effervescent tablets are uncoated tablets generally containing acid substances and carbonates or hydrogen carbonates, which react rapidly in the presence of water to release carbon dioxide. They are solid dosage forms that are intended to be dissolved or dispersed in a glass of water before administration.
Effervescent technology provides a novel dosage form for nutritional supplements and pharmaceuticals. In a more scientific way, the logic behind the technology can be said to be entirely based on the chemical incompatibility between its acidic and bicarbonate sources. The reaction is, of course, an autocatalytic reaction that ends up generating carbon dioxide in the presence of water.
Read Also: Manufacture of Effervescent Tablets
This article focuses on the advantages and disadvantages of effervescent tablets.
1. It is administered as a palatable sparkling solution.
2. It can be administered to patients who have problem in swallowing tablets and capsules.
3. It is readily absorbed and the bioavailability is high because it is administered as a solution.
4. Drugs that are unstable when stored as aqueous solutions are more often stable in the effervescent granules or tablet forms.
5. Buffered effervescent aspirin tablets have a less irritant effect on the gastric mucosa and cause less gastrointestinal tract blood loss than conventional tablets.
6. Incorporation of large amounts of active ingredients.
7. The product is typically self-mixing and flavourful.
8. Better dosing.
1. Most excipients used are relatively expensive.
2. It requires special production facilities.
3. Its high sodium or potassium content makes it unsuitable for administration to patients with heart failure or cardiac insufficiency.
4. Some are bulky in relation to tablets or capsules.
5. It is sometimes difficult to make drugs with unpleasant taste sufficiently palatable as an effervescent product.
6. Sometimes in a tablet form, disintegration can take up to 5 minutes. This depends mainly on the temperature of the water and active ingredient present.
