+
Hello there! If you’ve reached this page, you’re either looking for dissolution testers, or you’re wanting to find out more about them.
For visitors considering to purchase a dissolution tester, or looking to have their existing testers serviced or calibrated, please browse our site, see what we have to offer, and feel free to make an enquiry. We are very happy to help you in any way we can. Please click here to view our full range of dissolution testers.
For those wishing to learn a little more about dissolution testers themselves, then the friendly, experienced team at TLS are pleased to enlighten you. Let us tell you a little bit about dissolution testers, so the next time your friends ask, the answer will be on the tip of your tongue!
The basic principal behind all dissolution testers is to mimic the environment in which medication disperses in the human stomach. So the onus is to discover what happens when a tablet is swallowed – how easily does it break down? How long does it take to dissolve? And how well does that tablet then dissolve into the stomach fluid prior to being ingested into the blood stream? These are the questions Pharmaceutical, Academic and Medical Research laboratories ask to ascertain the effectiveness of medication dissolving into human body. The dissolution testers are the machines that enable the answers. They simulate the human stomach, bowel or bloodstream – the common areas of medication intake.
So, that’s what the dissolution testers are used for, but how do they actually achieve the results required? This is where things get a little technical, but we’ll try to keep it simple!
All dissolution testers conform to set standards (often stipulated by regulatory bodies, such as United States Pharmacopeia) to ensure test results are both accurate and reliable across the various different drug manufacturers and research institutions around the world. This means most dissolutions testers look similar, behave in similar ways and are designed within a similar mechanical framework. This allows for easy understanding of the various elements that make up all dissolution testers in active operation. We’re only going to cover the basic components of dissolution testers here, nothing more advanced, just enough to show you what they do. Let’s begin:
Dissolution Testers
The Water Bath: The purpose of this large tank of water is to mimic the human body temperature of 37 Degrees Celsius. This is achieved by heating the liquid in the tank and keeping it constantly hot for the duration of the test.
The Vessel: The glass vessels are designed to mimic the human stomach (and sometimes other organs). Acidic liquid is poured into the vessels, which are then lowered into the hot water bath. This keeps the vessel temperature at a constant 37 Degrees Celsius, mimicking the temperature and environment of the human stomach inside the human body. Dissolution testers can have between 6 and 14 separate vessels per dissolution tester, allowing for multiple tests of tablets at any one time. You can also vary the type of acidity/liquid in each vessel too.
The Paddle and Shaft: These are the primary apparatus of all dissolution testers, comprising of a long or short pole with a shaped attachment fitted to the end. The Paddle and Shaft are designed to mimic the human body’s movement, creating small waves, currents and motions inside the vessels, similar to the movement of acid inside the stomach. The Paddle and Shaft are lowered into the vessel and an electric drive head then moves them in clockwise and anticlockwise directions to create the simulated movement of the liquid inside vessel.
The Test: With all of the above components of the dissolution testers set up correctly and ready to operate, a tablet is dropped into each vessel. The machine is then switched on. The movement of the Paddle and Shaft creates the simulated movement of the stomach acid and the tablet begins to dissolve. The test will often run for a predetermined duration (anything between 30 minutes to 2 hours or longer) and during this time, scheduled samples of the vessel liquid is extracted for analysis.
The Result: It is the chemical makeup of the extracted samples that are used to determine the rate and capability of dissolution (the amount of tablet dissolved) over a set period of time. This allows the researchers and quality control staff to confirm if a tablet is dispersing inside the stomach correctly and at what speed, which is precious information for improving drug effectiveness and proving that you are maintaining standards.
That’s the gist about dissolution testers, although they can come with many different types of Paddles, Shafts and sample extraction mechanisms, the end goal is still the same.
If you now watch the above video from our YouTube page, and also take note of our diagram, we think you’ll have a much better idea about how dissolution testers work and what they are used for. If you have come to realise you or your company may require one or more dissolution testers, or if you have any further questions, please browse our website and know that you are very welcome to get in touch, we are here to help you. We are the exclusive ERWEKA UK distributor, providing exceptional dissolution testers that perform to the highest, well-known ERWEKA quality.