Brittle Fracture Index: a Review

ABSTRACTThis present study was aimed at reviewing the brittle fracture index. A search strategy employing keywords and phrases was used to acquire works of literature on the various application and relevance of brittle fracture index in solving the classical problems commonly encountered during tablet formulation. These classical problems were found to be capping and lamination, otherwise referred to brittle fracture. This study also discussed various methods usually employed in evaluating a compressed tablet such as tablet hardness, friability, disintegrating, and weight uniformity. It was found that, even though these techniques have been used for decades, they have been shown to still be inadequate in predicting the tendency of a tablet to cap or laminate. The brittle fracture index proposed towards the end of the 20th century has been employed by many researchers to predict the tendency of a tablet to undergo capping and lamination, hence, preventing their occurrences by varying the formulation variables such as the binder concentration, disintegrant, compression load, machine speed amongst others. It was also employed to group and rank binders based on their ability to ameliorate capping and lamination. In conclusion, the study revealed that the brittle fracture index is a better tool to be employed by pharmaceutical formulators in taking decisions that would improve the properties of tablets to enhance their productivity and the economic value of tablets.