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Swallowable, Chewable and Effervescent Calcium-Based Antacid Tablets Made With Specialty Minerals Calcium Carbonates

While a number of inorganic salts—calcium, magnesium and aluminum compounds—have been used to formulate antacid tablets, calcium-based antacid tablets have become the norm. In addition to being effective acid neutralizers, calcium antacids also serve as a source of calcium, giving them a dual purpose. They are most commonly made in the form of chewable tablets, but swallowable or effervescent types can also be found. Tableted antacids are popular for occasional heartburn; they are handy to carry around, easy to take, and moderate in cost.

Calcium carbonate is the usual form of calcium used in these antacid tablets, and for a variety of good reasons: calcium carbonate is an effective neutralizing alkali, has a low purchase price making it economical, and provides a highly concentrated, highly bioavailable source of elemental calcium to help prevent osteoporosis.


Formulating Swallowable Antacid Tablets
For ease of swallowing, the tablets should be made as small as possible. To help accomplish this, Specialty Minerals Inc. (SMI) offers several types of dense and very dense precipitated calcium carbonates (PCCs). Their high densities allow the maximum antacid active to be made into a small tablet. These products, which are made in the U.S., are:

  • CalEssence® 450 and 1500 PCC, with particle sizes of 4.5 and 12 microns. All CalEssence® PCC products have ultra-low levels of lead, less than 125 ppb, to make compliance with California Proposition 65 easy.
  • ViCALity®  Extra Heavy and Ultra Heavy PCCs, also 4.5 and 12 microns, with less than 500 ppb, lead, which allows Proposition 65 compliance in many cases.

The best product made in the SMI’s U.K. plant for swallowable tablets is:

  • SturcalTM L PCC—a 6 micron PCC.


Formulating Chewable Antacid Tablets
When tablets are to be chewed, packing the most calcium into the smallest space is not as great a concern, so the choice of calcium carbonate type to use is broader. When the desire is to still keep tablets to a reasonably small size, the denser grades listed above are still recommended. To that list of denser grades can be added CalEssence® 300 PCC and ViCALity® Heavy PCC, both of which are 3 microns.

Others may prefer a larger tablet, so the use of a small particled PCC like CalEssence® 70 or ViCALity Albafil® PCC, each 0.7 microns, can be recommended. 

In chewable tablets, PCCs can improve the mouth texture of the product, giving the tablet a smoother feel than the gritty taste than can be encountered when some ground calcium carbonates (GCCs) are used. 


Formulating Effervescent Calcium Supplement Tablets
An effervescent tablet is an excellent option for people who don’t like to chew tablets and can’t swallow them. Calcium carbonate is an alkali, which will react with an acid which is also included in the tablet. When the tablet is dropped into water, carbon dioxide gas is formed, making the liquid bubble or effervesce. Besides being a pleasant way to take the antacid, the calcium arrives in the stomach already in a disintegrated or dissolved form for quicker relief. 

Effervescents usually contain some kind of mild organic acid, such as citric, ascorbic or malic acid. There is some technology needed to manufacture and package an effervescent that will remain stable on the shelf, and if you do not have in-house expertise, you may wish to work with a custom effervescent packager.

Many grades of SMI calcium carbonates can be used in effervescents. A smaller particle, such as the 0.7 micron CalEssence® 70 PCC or ViCALity Albafil® PCC solid particles or a slightly larger, about 2-3 micron, CalEssence® 160 PCC, ViCALity® Extra Light PCC or Calopake® Extra Light PCC needle shaped particle would be best. These PCCs have large surface areas available to react quickly with the acid, speeding up the preparation of the antacid drink, and the small particle sizes help avoid any gritty mouth feel that could result from using an overly large particle that wouldn’t fully dissolve before ingestion.

   ViCALity® Extra Light high surface area PCC

Granulating Calcium Carbonates For Tableting
All calcium carbonates must be granulated before converting to tablets. They have inherently poor compressibility, so are not directly compressible. This is a fundamental property of calcium carbonate, no matter the type. Granulation involves mixing the calcium carbonate with some binder such as maltodextrin, starch or acacia gum, usually at a 5 to 10 percent binder level, and then agglomerating to a larger, easier to handle particle, much like sand. 

Proper granulation is critical to producing tablets with adequate strength for handling and shipping, while also being able to disintegrate and dissolve quickly in the stomach. USP requirements for calcium carbonate antacid tablets require disintegration within 10 minutes and dissolution within 30 minutes.

SMI’s laboratory carried out a granulation study, looking at the effect of calcium carbonate particle size and particle size distribution on the granulation process and the properties of the tablets made from the granulations. You can read this study by clicking here

Specialty Minerals Precipitated Calcium Carbonates (PCCs) For Antacid Tablets
Use the product-application selector chart above to guide your selection of a Specialty Minerals PCC for your antacid tablet.

  • Details on the various grades of SMI PCCs for tablets can be seen by clicking here.
  • To download a data sheet for a particular grade, click here.

All SMI’s precipitated calcium carbonates are manufactured in plants that are registered with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as Drug Manufacturing Establishments, and follow Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP). These plants are also ISO 9000 quality certified.

The CalEssence® and ViCALity® PCC products are made in Adams, Massachusetts and are certified to meet USP and FCC requirements. The Sturcal™, Calopake®, Multifex-MM®, and Calofort® U PCCs are manufactured in Birmingham, U.K. They are certified to meet EP, BP and E170i requirements, and can be certified to meet USP / FCC, as well. All are certified Kosher, and are available world-wide.


Specialty Minerals Talcs As Tablet Glidants and Lubricants
SMI also manufactures USP talcs which are used in tableting as glidants and lubricants. When the proper particle size talc is chosen in relation to the sizes of the other ingredients, disintegration and dissolution times impaired by magnesium stearate lubricant can be improved. For further information on SMI talcs for tableting, and on a SMI’s laboratory study on talc as a glidant, click here

 

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