Thesis (M.Sc. in Pharmacy)--Chulalongkorn University, 1995

Modified rice starch was prepared by physico-chemical modification for the purpose to be employed as diluent for the preparation of tablets by direct compression. Modified rice starch was evaluated and compared with commercial directly compressible diluents such as Era-tabR, Starch 1500R, Avicel PH 102R and EmcompressR. These evaluated properties were physical properties of powders and tablets, the dilution potential ability as well as the effect of lubricant (magnesium stearate) on hardness and disintegration of tablets. The compressibility of developed modified rice starch was found to be higher than that of Era-tabR, Starch 1500R and EmcompressR but lower than that of Avicel PH 102R. Model formulations for direct compression tablets using isoniazid represented water soluble drug and hydrochlorothiazide represented water insoluble drug were presented. Both isoniazid tablets and hydrochlorothiazide tablets using modified rice starch as directly compressible diluent complied with USP XXIII specifications for hardness, friability, disintegration time and dissolution time.