Does tablet shape and height influence survival of fluidized bed-granulated living microorganisms during compaction?

June 1, 2025, midnight - by Karl Vorländer , Lukas Bahlmann , Arno Kwade , Jan Henrik Finke , Ingo Kampen

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Developing effective probiotic formulations requires gentle processing to preserve the viability of probiotic microorganisms, which is crucial for their health benefits. Fluidized bed spray granulation followed by tablet compression has emerged as a promising process pathway, as demonstrated in previous studies by the same authors. These earlier investigations examined the impact of various factors using cylindrical tablets measuring 11.28 mm in diameter and weighing 450 mg. However, these flat tablets are difficult to swallow, highlighting the need to explore alternative tablet geometries for probiotic delivery. To date, no studies have examined how the shape and geometry of tablet tooling and tablets themselves affect microorganism survival. This study addresses that gap by evaluating the survival of Saccharomyces cerevisiae in both flat, round tablets of varying mass (and therefore height), and in convex tablets of different shapes. These results are then correlated with the physical and mechanical properties of the tablets to establish process-structure-property relationships. The findings show that greater tablet height enhances both microbial survival and mechanical strength, likely due to reduced elastic recovery. In contrast, altering tablet shape had a relatively minor effect on microbiological and mechanical properties, as overall tablet porosity remained largely unchanged.

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