marine drugs Article Understanding the Performance of a Novel Direct Compression Excipient Comprising Roller Compacted Chitin Deeb Abu Fara 1,* , Linda Al-Hmoud 1, Iyad Rashid 2, Babur Z. Chowdhry 3 and Adnan Badwan 2 1 Chemical Engineering Department, School of Engineering, University of Jordan, Amman 11942, Jordan;
[email protected] 2 Research and Innovation Centre, The Jordanian Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Company (JPM), P.O. Box 94, Naor 11710, Jordan;
[email protected] (I.R.);
[email protected] (A.B.) 3 School of Science, Faculty of Engineering & Science, University of Greenwich, Medway Campus, Chatham Maritime, Kent ME4 4TB, UK;
[email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +962-799182424 Received: 7 January 2020; Accepted: 12 February 2020; Published: 17 February 2020 Abstract: Chitin has been investigated in the context of finding new excipients suitable for direct compression, when subjected to roller compaction. Ball milling was concurrently carried out to compare effects from different energy or stress-inducing techniques. Samples of chitin powders (raw, processed, dried and humidified) were compared for variations in morphology, X-ray diffraction patterns, densities, FT-IR, flowability, compressibility and compactibility. Results confirmed the suitability of roller compaction to convert the fluffy powder of raw chitin to a bulky material with improved flow. X-ray powder diffraction studies showed that, in contrast to the high decrease in crystallinity upon ball milling, roller compaction manifested a slight deformation in the crystal lattice. Moreover, the new excipient showed high resistance to compression, due to the high compactibility of the granules formed. This was correlated to the significant extent of plastic deformation compared to the raw and ball milled forms of chitin.