Abstract

The water soluble gum isolated from the seeds of Cassia fistula Linn. found in abundance throughout India, has been evaluated for its binding properties for formulations of tablets containing 2 and 4 percent of gum. The binding properties of gum has been evaluated in relation to the conventional binders like Gum arabic, Gum tragacanth, Sodium CMC and Gelatin at different parameters like percentage of fines, tablet hardness,disintegration time and friability. Thr gum showed overall superiority in viscosity and binding properties as compared to other binders. The addition of preservatives effectively checked the gum's characteristic of losing viscosity on keeping. Like other binders,increase in concentration of gum from 2 to 4 percent, decrease the percentage fines (5.6 to 3.45), increase the hardness (kg/in2)5.11 +/- 0.7270, C.V.14.22 percent to 5.98 +/- 0.6863, C.V.11.47 percent)and disintegration time (30 min 29 sec to 36 min 44 sec). Percentage friability has been found to be almost equal (0.81 and 0.84) in Cassia gum although it was increased in other samples except gum tracanth. The results indicate that C.fistula seed gum is a potential binder for pharmaceutical industry.