A study on friability, hardness and fiber content analysis of fiber enriched milk tablet

Abstract

This study was performed to analyze the friability, hardness and fiber content of fiber enriched milk tablet derived from five different local fiber sources such as carrot, spinach, dragon fruit, mango and watermelon. Cow milk was mixed to complement with the tablet as a protein source. The powder were spray dried at 100°C, 120°C and 140°C and freeze dried at -60°C. The mixture of fruits and milk were made into equal ratio with the addition of 15 maltodextrin as a carrier. Tablets formed were used for friability and hardness test while dried powder were used for fiber content analysis. Dragon fruit tablet dried at 140°C have the highest friability with 11. 42 of weight loss. The second highest friability was spinach tablet dried at 100°C and 120°C drying temp erature with 9.30 and 9.28 respectively. The lowest friability was exhibited by carrot, mango and watermelon tablet at 100°C and dragon fruit at 120°C while carrot and spinach at 140°C. In contras t, none of the freeze dried tablets showed any weight loss hence they are not friable. For hardness test, all of the freeze dried showed to have higher tensile strength than spray dried, where carrot showed to be the highest at 2.27 Newton and the lowest were spray dried mango at 0.16 Newton. In fiber content analysis, freeze dried mango have the highest fiber content followed by freeze dried carrot and 140°C s pray dried carrot. It can be concluded that the higher the spray dry temperature, the more friable is the tablet. While, high friability leads to lower hardness of tablets. In terms of fiber content, the higher the spray dry temperature, the lower the fiber content found.