Abstract

TASTE MASKING BY CO-CRYSTALLIZATION: A REVIEW

Chetna S. Dhakate*, Kanchan P. Upadhye, Gauri R. Dixit, Suparna S. Bakhale, Rani M. Umate

Abstract

Acceptability of any dosage form mainly depends on its taste i.e. mouth feel. Dosage form interacts with taste receptor on the tongue to give bitter, sweet or salty taste sensation, when it dissolves in saliva. In market, there are numbers of pharmaceutical preparations available in which actives are bitter in taste. Pediatric patients frequently fail to take medications properly because of unpleasant taste of medication. Thus bitterness of preparation leads to patient incompliance. So masking of bitterness becomes essential. To overcome this problem, many technique has been developed to mask the bitter taste of drugs. Co-crystallization involves alteration in molecular assemblies and composition of pharmaceutical substance and which ultimately results in enhancing physical properties. Co-crystals contains API and pharmaceutically acceptable co-formers. Co-crystals are molecular complexes, bringing about changes in solubility, bioavailability, stability and taste masking of bitter drug in pharmaceutical designing without interacting with therapeutic utility. The main objective of this review is discuss co-crystallization as a technique for masking the bitter taste of the drug.

Keywords: Taste, Taste buds, Bitter drug, Taste masking, Co-crystallization, Sweetener.