Gelatine has proved its versatility in medical applications. Pharmaceutical Gelatine is used in the production of capsules or tablets as a component of wound dressing, blood volume substitutes, or hemostatic sponges. Gelatine in the medical industry is mainly used to produce soft as well as hard capsules. It is also used to make effervescent tablets or film-coated tablets. The manufacturing of hard gelatine capsules includes dipping stainless mold pins into a warm bath of gelatine solution. For the soft gelatine process, two soft sheets of gelatine are formed, and these pass over a die of the desired capsule size and shape. Gelatine is one of the most popular ingredients used in the pharmaceutical industry. Pharmaceutical gelatine has a lot of benefits in medical applications.

Benefits of Hard and Soft Capsule

Gelatine is widely used to make the shell of hard as well as soft capsules. The gelatine provides effective protection to the medicine components from light., atmospheric oxygen, microbial growth, and contamination. The gelatine also contributes to the taste and the odor of the medicine. Seventy percent of the hard capsule is of gelatine. In soft capsules, only a quarter is made up of gelatine. There’s one challenge faced by both the hard as well as the soft capsule that is cross-linking. Cross-linking is a natural behavior; here, the gelatine molecules link together and dissolve more slowly.

Benefit on Tablets

Gelatine is used as a coating for tablets. This coating offers a lower-cost alternative to capsules. As gelatine acts as a binder, it can glue together the powders during the granulation, for example, starch, cellulose, derivatives, and gum acacia. Gelatine coatings can also overcome some tablets’ weaknesses. Swallow ability becomes challenging when there is less protection to the active ingredients. Hence gelatine as a binder provides improved swallow ability. It reduces the taste and odor and also helps in protecting APIs against oxygen and light.