Tableting and Evaluation of Paracetamol Tablets Formulated from Locally Sourced Dioscorea rotundata Starch

Starches are of great importance in the pharmaceutical industry for the manufacture of solid dosage forms especially tablets and capsules. Starches from different sources have been reported to be of great values and perform very well like maize starch BP. In this study, starch from white yam (Dioscorea rotundata) was extracted, characterized and its mucilage used as binder to formulate paracetamol tablets. The properties of the tablets were compared with tablets produced from maize starch BP. Seven batches of paracetamol tablets with different concentrations of the starch as binder were produced (F1=5% w/w, F2=7.5% w/w, F3= 10%w/w and F4=15% w/w. F5 on the other hand, contains 10% w/w of yam starch mucilage as binder and 5% w/w yam starch powder as disintegrant; F6 contains 10%w/w of maize starch BP as binder and 5%w/w maize starch BP as disintegrant; while F7 contains 10%w/w yam starch mucilage as binder and 10%w/w maize starch powder as disintegrant). The starch yield from the yam tuber after extraction was 74.59% and the pH was 6.8. The angle of repose of the formulated paracetamol granules for batches F1, F2, F4, F5 and F7 fell within 310- 350; indicating a good flow, while batches F3 and F6 was 360 - 400 indicating a fair flow. Batches F4 and F7 had the highest hardness values, while batch F1and F6 had highest percentage friability values - 1.20% and 1.02% respectively. Paracetamol tablets formulated from Dioscorea rotundata had comparable disintegration time and dissolution profile with tablets formulated with maize starch BP. The results obtained showed that, Dioscorea rotundata starch mucilage has good binding properties and could be modified into a high grade pharmaceutical starch and employ in the production of tablets. Keywords: Starch, Dioscorea rotundata, binder