ABSTRACT
Excipients are substances added to a medicine to allow it to be usable, storable or palatable; they include solvents, flavouring agents, preservatives and materials required to make ointments, creams and lotions. Formulation of a medicine with excipients and solvents turns a therapeutically active substance, a drug, into an acceptable medicine, the practical dosage form that a manufacturer can consistently produce and deliver in bulk, that pharmacists can store and dispense and that can be taken by or administered to patients to produce a consistent action. Extracted from leaves and leaf buds of a palm tree, Copernicia prunifera, formerly C. cerifera, native to northeastern Brazil. The type in use today is ß-cyclodextrin produced by a carefully managed enzymatic action on starch to give a product with a molecular weight between about 950 and 1200. All starches consist of carbohydrate polymers whose molecules are linked to produce high molecular weight substances that serve as energy reserves in all plants.
