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The role of principal component analysis in the selection of pharmaceutical formulations is presented. The objective and the procedure of the analysis are discussed in detail. The technique was successfully applied to a system consisting of 10 response variables (tablet properties). Analysis of the results showed that the first component (dissolution) and components one and two together (dissolution and disintegration) contributed 95.4 and 99.3%, respectively, to the overall information about the formulations and that eight of 10 response parameters contributed nothing further to the overall information. The results obtained from this method of analysis may be found useful for achieving economy in both cost and time of measuring responses. Principal component analysis also provides a basis for understanding the underlying mechanism of the system under consideration.

Two motorized and two manually powered instruments were used to measure the breaking strength of tablets of three different shapes, each of two sizes and each at three different target breaking strength values. The experimental results were statistically analyzed. The uniformity among breaking strength testers was compared and these results are presented. A high correlation among devices was observed, allowing for the derivation of regression equations which could be used to predict precisely the breaking strengths from one instrument to another. Manually operated instruments tended to yield lower and more variable values than those of their electrically powered counterparts. Tablet shape and size were also found to affect the uniformity and consistency of tablet breaking strengths.