ABSTRACT
The coating of solid pharmaceutical dosage forms began in the ninth century B.C., with the Egyptians. At that time the primary solid dosage form was the pill, a hand-shaped spherical mass containing drug, sugar, and other diluents. A variety of materials were used to coat pills, such as talc, gelatin, and sugar. Gold and silver were also used. Many of these coatings proved to be impervious to chemical attack in the digestive tract; as a result, the pill never released its active ingredient and was thus ineffective.
