Evaluating the Potential of Potato (Solanum tuberosum) Starch as Functional Excipients in Tablet Formulation

Potato starch was characterized for physicochemical, morphological, and thermal properties and further studied for its suitability for tablet-making. The physico-chemical properties such as amylose content (AC), swelling power (SP), solubility (S), and water holding capacity (WHC) of the starch were 20.6%, 40.74g/g, 7.06%, and 74.95%, respectively. The morphological characteristics of potato starch studied using scanning electron microscopy showed smooth and oval-shaped granules. The thermal properties of starch studied by using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) showed onset temperature (To), peak temperature (Tp), conclusion temperature (Tc), enthalpy change (ΔH), and peak height (PHI) of 60.38, 63.81, 67.89ºC, 10.2 J/g, and 2.97mW, respectively. The tablets were formulated from potato starch and studied for their appearance, size, color, friability, hardness, drug content uniformity, in vitro dissolution, and in vitro disintegration properties. The weight and hardness of 20 and 5 tablets were 329.7mg and 4.42kg/cm2, respectively. The disintegration time of tablets was 2:14min with friability of 0.39%. The drug dissolution of starch after 60 min was 98.56%, thus, potato starch can be a good source for drug tablets.