What are the inactive ingredients in medications that account for their weight and size?

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I take a 2mg vitamin supplement tablet and a 150mg tablet of a medication I’m on. The vitamin supplement tablet is actually a bit bigger so I’m wondering what else is in it, what accounts for its weight and size?

In: Chemistry

4 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

With a grain of salt, I’m probably not as reliable as most answerers I’ve seen on this sub.

I believe by the description given you’re using capsule and compressed pills? Which could be (in addition to the other answers) part of the weight difference, as one pill could be much more dense and the other could contain plenty of empty space.

Just wanted to add a possibility

Anonymous 0 Comments

It depends on specific pill, but mostly it’s binder. A binder is a material that holds the pill together and keeps it from crumbling. It’s usually a starchy material like cellulose or sucrose, and sometimes gelatin.

Anonymous 0 Comments

It depends on the tablet specifically but like looking at aspirin tablets the main inactive ingredients are Carnauba Wax and corn starch. For liquid medicines the main inactive ingredient would likely be water or something to act as a solvent to the medication (alcohol can be another such solvent).

So it depends on the medication specifically.

https://www.riteaid.com/shop/bayer-aspirin-genuine-325-mg-coated-tablets-200-tablets-0353716

Anonymous 0 Comments

The sucrose and starch answers are correct. The carnauba is also correct, but this is usually the case where they use a paraffin base of some kind that slows its release in the digestion process. This is for slow-release medications.