Our mission is to ensure the generation of accurate and precise findings.
Please enter subscribe form shortcode
Please enter instagram feed shortcode
Taste is often one of the deciding factors between a technically successful formulation and a commercially successful product. Many pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, and cosmetic actives have an inherently bitter, metallic, astringent, sulfurous, or otherwise unpleasant taste or odor. This becomes particularly challenging in orally disintegrating tablets, powders, sachets, gummies, liquids, chewables, and pediatric or geriatric formulations, where the active ingredient cannot simply be hidden inside a conventional tablet coating.Cyclodextrins provide an elegant approach to taste and odor masking by reducing the amount of free active ingredient available to interact with taste receptors. Through molecular complexation, they can suppress bitterness and unpleasant aromas without necessarily relying on large amounts of sweeteners or flavoring agents. Depending on the molecule, cyclodextrins can also improve solubility, stability, mouthfeel, and dispersibility at the same time, making them especially valuable when several formulation problems need to be solved simultaneously.
Our team has worked on taste-masking challenges ranging from strongly bitter pharmaceutical compounds to nutraceutical ingredients with persistent metallic, chemical, or botanical aftertastes. Typical problems we can address include:
A successful formulation is rarely based on cyclodextrin selection alone. We therefore screen the complete formulation environment, including the cyclodextrin type and concentration, complexation ratio, pH, sweeteners, flavors, acids, polymers, surfactants, and other complementary excipients.
CarboHyde supports taste-masking development from rapid feasibility screening through optimized prototypes. Studies can include cyclodextrin screening, phase-solubility and binding studies, sensory screening, bitterness-ranking experiments, optimization of cyclodextrin-to-active ratios, excipient compatibility, dissolution and release testing, stability studies, analytical characterization, and prototype formulation development.
Where required, we can develop the complex directly in the intended dosage form or prepare an intermediate that can be incorporated into powders, granules, tablets, orally disintegrating formulations, liquids, gummies, capsules, food supplements, and other consumer products. Our support can continue through process optimization, scale-up, analytical development, IP strategy, regulatory documentation, and technology transfer.
The method used to prepare a cyclodextrin complex can have a major influence on both masking efficiency and release behavior. Depending on the active and the target product, we use techniques such as solution complexation, co-precipitation, kneading, grinding and co-milling, freeze-drying, spray drying, solvent evaporation, and other solid-state complexation approaches.Our formulation team combines access to a broad range of commercially available cyclodextrins with practical experience in selecting the appropriate cyclodextrin, formulation environment, and manufacturing process. The objective is not simply to achieve the highest possible binding affinity, but to find the right balance between effective taste masking in the mouth and efficient release of the active ingredient after administration.
