The commercial products of the MCC
Avicel PH 101, Avicel PH 102, Avicel PH 103, Avicel PH 105, Avicel PH 112, Avicel PH 113, Avicel PH 200, Avicel PH 200LM, Avicel PH 30, Avicel PH 302
• ACCEL-101: It has a median particle size of about 50 μm (larger particle surface area) is most widely used for direct compression tableting and wet granulation. It is mainly applied in wet granulation and extrusion-spheronisation
• ACCEL-102 : It has a median particle size of about 100 μm. It has similar compression properties to ACCEL-101. However, it has larger particle size and therefore, may be of value in improving the flow if fine powders. It possesses excellent properties for use in direct compression processes.
• 112: It possesses excellent properties for use in direct compression processes. It is recommended for application in formulations with moisture sensitive drugs, due to its low moisture content (LOD smaller than 1.5%).
• 200 : (180 µm) It has a large particle size which offers increased flow ability with minimum effect on compression characteristics. It can be used in direct compression and wet granulation to reduce table weight variation and to improve content uniformity.
table
Utilization:
The MCC is a valuable additive in pharmaceutical as a binder for tablets by direct compression and in vitamin supplements, in food as an anticaking, thickener, texturizer, emulsifier and bulking agent as well as a fat substitute and in cosmetic as a filler (Chauhan et al., 2009, Ohwoavworhua and Adelakun, 2010). It is one of the most important tableting excipients due to its superior dry binding properties producing high quality of tablets by direct compression (Thoorens et al., 2014). It is also used in plaque assays for counting viruses, as an alternative to carboxymethyl cellulose (Matrosovich et al., 2006). Another applications of the MCC such as paints, paper and nonwoven textiles, oils field services, medicine and composites because of its properties such as high strength, flexibility and aspect ratio (Tubark et al., 1983; Herrick et al., 1983)
Synthesis
The MCC can be synthesized by different processes such as reactive extrusion process, enzyme mediated process (Monschein et al., 2013), the steam explosion process and acid hydrolysis process (El-Sakhawy and Hassan, 2007; Chauhan et al., 2009). The acid hydrolysis process (Table 1) is preferred due to its shorter reaction duration comparing to the other processes. Furthermore, it can be applied by a continuous process rather than a batch-type process and it consumes limited quantity of acid and produces fine particles of the MCC (Chauhan et al., 2009).
The synthesis procedure of the MCC reported by (Ohwoavworhua et al., 2004) and applied with slight modification by Ohwoavworhua et al., 2010 can be concluded as follow: A 50 g quantity of the α-cellulose was hydrolyzed with 0.8 l of 2.5 N hydrochloric acid at a boiling temperature of 105° for 15 min. The fraction passing through 710 µm sieve was obtained and stored at room temperature in a desiccator.