Swelling efficiency of disintegrants: A direct evaluation through calorimetric analyses

The behavior of some disintegrants used in pharmaceutical formulations (sodium carboxymethylstarch, sodium carboxymethylcellulose, polyvinylpyrrolidone) and of a new candidate disintegrant (a polymeric derivative of β-cyclodextrin) has been investigated. Calorimetric measurements have been performed on powdered samples of these materials by water addition and allowed the interpretation of the mechanism of interaction with water in terms of two distinct contributions: heat of wetting and heat of swelling.