ABSTRACT
B. Sugar Coatings Sugar coating has a long history in the pharmaceutical industry. It uses sugar solutions or syrups as coating solutions that are sprayed onto substrates, such as tablets, pellets, and granules. Sugar coating has been primarily used for taste masking and for aesthetic purposes. The most serious drawback of sugar coating is the low molecular weight of the film forming materials, specifically glucose and/or sucrose. The formed films are weak and have low mechanical strength. Consequently, the coating levels that are applied onto substrates are generally high, contributing to as much as 30-70% of the total weight of the product, thereby resulting in long processing times. Another disadvantage of the sugar coating process is that the coating solutions are susceptible to bacterial and fungal growth, and they must be carefully monitored. In spite of these potential challenges, sugar coatings have been used successfully to coat numerous products and are still popular in certain quarters.
