Introduction
As a kind of Chinese medicine, herbal pills are closely related to traditional medicine. As for how to make herbal pills, we need to understand the definition, types, ingredients, preparation methods, advantages, disadvantages and pharmaceutical machinery used in the production of herbal pills. In addition, understanding the new trends of herbal pills in the market will also help industry-related personnel to formulate future strategies.
What Are Herbal Pills?
Herbal pills are solid pills made of natural herbal medicines through a specific process. They are one of the most representative dosage forms in the traditional Chinese medicine system. They are essentially carriers of plant active ingredients, and have the dual attributes of traditional medical theory and modern pharmaceutical technology.
The basic composition of pills includes medicinal matrix, molding excipients and functional additives. The medicinal matrix refers to single or compound Chinese medicinal materials (such as ginseng, astragalus, angelica, etc.), which usually account for more than 70%. Molding excipients are honey (honey pills), water/starch slurry (water pills), microcrystalline cellulose (modern concentrated pills), etc. There are also functional additives including disintegrants (sodium carboxymethyl starch), lubricants (magnesium stearate), etc.
Whether it is regulating chronic diseases or emergency treatment, herbal pills can stably play their role. In addition, there are pills used in the field of health care that can also be taken by people to achieve meal replacement or beauty effects.
Key Benefits of Herbal Pills
- Sustained release of drug efficacy, precise conditioning
Chinese medicine pills achieve continuous release of drug ingredients through the characteristics of slow disintegration of pills, which is especially suitable for chronic disease conditioning and long-term strengthening of the body.
- Natural ingredients, safe and reliable
Chinese medicine pills mostly use animal and plant extracts, and the compatibility follows traditional prescriptions to avoid the potential side effects of chemical synthetic ingredients.
- Portable and easy to take, in line with the modern rhythm
The pills are small in size and fixed in dosage, easy to carry and take in a fixed amount, and meet the needs of fast-paced life.
- Upgraded process, controllable quality
Modern pharmaceutical technology improves the uniformity, disintegration and microbial limit standards of pills.
The characteristics of herbal medicine pills are in line with the concept of “precision drug delivery” in modern medicine, reducing fluctuations in blood drug concentrations and improving patient compliance. Coupled with the upgrade of pharmaceutical equipment technology (such as pill coating machines), the dissolution rate of pills can be precisely controlled to meet the needs of different diseases.
Manufacturing Methods for Herbal Pills
Industrialized pill making technology is centered on high efficiency, precision and standardization, and uses advanced equipment to achieve full process automation control from raw materials to finished products. Taking the mainstream process extrusion-spheronization method as an example, the pill making process and key equipment will be disassembled in detail.
Raw Material Pretreatment
Ultrafine Grinder: grind the medicinal materials into 10-50μm fine powder (passing 200-300 mesh sieve) to increase the dissolution rate of the ingredients.
Trough Mixer: mix the drug powder with the binder (water, honey, starch slurry, etc.) to form a uniform soft material.
Extrusion Molding
Twin-screw Extruder:
- The soft material is extruded into strips with a diameter of 1-3mm through screw advancement
- Temperature control range 20-80℃ (to avoid loss of heat-sensitive components)
- Adjustable extrusion pressure (0.5-5MPa) to adapt to materials of different viscosities
Mold Adaptation:
- Replace molds with different apertures to support the production of multi-specification pill strips
The use of this technology can ensure high-precision extrusion, with a strip diameter error of ≤±0.1mm, to ensure the consistency of subsequent pill weight. And through energy-saving design, the energy consumption of variable frequency motor is reduced, which saves 15% energy compared with single screw extruder.
Spheronization Granulation
Centrifugal Spheronization Machine:
- Use centrifugal force to cut the extruded strips into particles and roll them into balls in the rotating disk
- The speed is adjustable (100-1500rpm) to control the particle size of the pellets (0.5-5mm)
- Equipped with online particle size monitoring sensor, real-time feedback adjustment parameters
Drying and Coating
Fluidized Bed Dryer:
- Controllable temperature and wind speed, the moisture is quickly removed
- Adopt both drying and primary coating functions (such as spraying enteric layer materials)
High-efficiency Pill Coating Machine:
- Use bottom spraying technology to evenly spray the sustained-release layer or moisture-proof layer
- Coating weight gain accuracy ±1%, film thickness uniformity >95%
Packaging Solutions for Herbal Pills
Aluminum-plastic Blister Packaging
Blister packaging has the characteristics of high barrier properties. The aluminum foil layer is moisture-proof, light-proof, and anti-oxidant, which can extend the shelf life (the conventional shelf life can reach 36 months); secondly, blister packaging can ensure clear dosage, independent unit packaging, avoid secondary pollution, and improve medication compliance.
Related Equipment: Fully automatic Blister Packing Machines
Bottled
Glass Bottle & Silica Gel Desiccant:
- Excellent light-proof property, suitable for pills containing photosensitive ingredients
- Need to be equipped with nitrogen filling and sealing equipment to replace oxygen in the bottle (residual oxygen content <2%)
HDPE Plastic Bottle:
- Lightweight, drop-resistant, suitable for automated filling lines;
- The inner wall is coated with a moisture-proof coating (such as polyvinyl alcohol) to prevent the pills from absorbing moisture and softening.
Related Equipment: Automatic Pill Counting Machines
Bagged
Flexible packaging can adapt to small doses and meet portable needs (such as 7-day treatment package); secondly, bagged drugs have low costs and are suitable for large-scale production of general drugs. The technologies that can be applied include multi-layer co-extruded films with a structure of PET/AL/PE and a thickness of 80-120μm, which can balance strength and cost.
Related Equipment: SED-KLB Vertical Pouch Packaging Machine for Guranules
When choosing the right packaging form, it is also important to determine the quality control of the packaging. Careful inspection is mainly carried out from three aspects.
Sealing Inspection
- Negative Pressure Leak Detector: detect micropores in blister packaging (sensitivity 0.5μm).
- Laser Micropore Scanner: online detection of pinhole defects in aluminum-plastic composite films.
Microbiological Control
- The cleanliness of the packaging workshop reaches ISO level 8 (≥0.5μm particles ≤3,520,000/m³).
- Ozone fumigation equipment pre-sterilizes packaging materials.
Printing Compliance
- UV ink printing ensures that the text is resistant to friction (in accordance with the “Pharmaceutical Packaging Material Printing Standard”).
- Color difference detector (ΔE＜1.5) ensures brand identity consistency.
Leading Pharmaceutical Equipment Manufacturer for High Efficiency
With a 5,500 m² factory and a dedicated team of over 100 R&D and office personnel, Sedpharma delivers high-quality pharmaceutical equipment solutions worldwide.
Conclusion
In the collision of traditional wisdom and cutting-edge technology, herbal pills are writing a new legend in the modern pharmaceutical industry. From the innovation of precision pill-making technology to the screening system of pharmaceutical-grade excipients, from the intelligent packaging system to the whole process quality control solution, the birth of each pill is the ultimate pursuit of safety, efficacy and user experience. SED Pharma has been deeply involved in the field of pharmaceutical machinery for 13 years. We provide modular engineering solutions: fluidized bed granulators and coating machines, visual inspection systems are all connected. Full-cycle service: from equipment transportation and installation guidance to one year of after-sales packaging.
Choose SED Pharma, and make the definite leap from “manufacturing” to “intelligent manufacturing”!
