Background: Quince seed mucilage biopolymer (QSMB), famous for ameliorating coughs and controlling asthma symptoms, has not been processed by scientific methods and rules into a local oral tablet.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate and compare the mechanical properties of QSMB with different size fractions of the mucilage powder, dried by oven or by freeze drying, to achieve a tablet.

Materials and Methods: The granules dried by oven and freezing processes were classified into different size fractions (212 – 1700 μm) by sieve analyses. The tablets were prepared by a wet granulation method using deionized water. The physical and mechanical properties were tested and compared for the oven- and freeze-dried granules. Samples were compressed into troche tablets weighing 800 ± 6.9 mg and the packing fraction, tensile strength, friability, and hardness of the oven- and freeze-dried tablets were evaluated and compared.

Results: The results showed that density of the powder prepared by the cold lyophilized method was about 20% less than that using the warm oven method. Compressibility and Hausner ratio values were 8 to 10 for compressibility and 0.9 to 1 for the Hausner ratio, and were different about 20 and 10%, respectively, for the two methods of drying. The tensile strength values decreased slightly from 1.65 ± 0.15 to 1.30 ± 0.1 for warm and 1.7 ± 0.3 to 1.45 ± 0.2 for cold drying, following an increase in granule sizes from 212 to 1700. This pattern also occurred for the friability, although in both cases the differences were not statistically significant (P > 0.05). The packing fraction significantly increased (P < 0.05) from 0.75 ± 0.2 to 0.82 ± 0.3 and 0.87 ± 0.2 to 0.96 ± 0.2 for the oven- and freeze-dried methods following an increase in the granule sizes.

Conclusions: There seems to be a higher degree of consolidation for the compacts formed by larger particles of the freeze-dried mucilage, probably due to a plastic deformation and fragmentation processes, compared to those from smaller granules.

Keywords: Quince Seeds, Biopolymers, Powder Characteristics, Mechanical Movement Freeze Drying, Tableting, Tensile Strength, Packing Fraction, Size Distribution, Troche Tablets