Overview

Low-substituted hydroxypropyl cellulose is a non-ionic, water insoluble functional disintegrant. It can improve stability for oxygen and water sensitive APIs and has an anti-capping effect due to the fibrous nature of the particle. 

L-HPC is a low-substituted hydroxypropyl ether of cellulose within a small portion of the hydroxypropyl groups in the glucose unit. Whereas hydroxypropylcellulose (MS*=3) is soluble in both water and alcohol, L-HPC (MS*=0.2-0.4) swells in water and is insoluble.

L-HPC is used as a binder and a disintegrant for solid dosage forms. It was brought onto the market in 1977, and then listed in the JP in 1986, in the NF in 1990 and in the EP in 2016. This product exhibits a wide range of compatibility with many active substances. It is a suitable binder and disintegrant for a formulation study.

Applications

Pharmaceuticals

L-HPC can be used as a disintegrant for its swelling action in water; also, it is good for both wet and dry blending in hard tablets due to its good compressibility and binding ability. 

Let’s see the details.

Disintegration

L-HPC absorbs water and significantly expands in volume although it is not suitable in water. This swelling ability accelerates the disintegration and increases the fineness of a tablet dispersion. 

L-HPC has better disintegration capability than other disintegrants such as sodium starch glycolate in both vitamin c tablets and aspirin tablets.

Compression

L-HPC can be used as a binder in both direct compression and wet granulation tablets. L-HPC increases the hardness of the tablet than other excipients such as croscarmellose sodium. 

And as it is non-ionic it improves the bioavailability of the API. It is almost impossible to react with active ingredients in tablets compared with ionic excipients under the same moisture level.