. Tablets Tablets may be defined as solid pharmaceutical dosage forms prepared by compressing or moulding.

They have been in widespread use since the latter part of the 19th century. Advantages of tablet preparation to the manufacturer include: simplicity and economy in fabrication, stability, and convenience in dispensing and shipping. The advantages to the consumer include: accuracy and compactness of dosage, portability and blandness of taste. Definitions. Although tablets are most frequently discoid in form, they may also be round, oval, oblong, cylindrical or triangular. They are divided into two general classes, depending upon whether they are made by compression or by moulding. The various tablet types and abbreviation commonly employed in referring to them are listed below. Compressed Tablets (C.T.). These tablets are formed by compression and contain no special coating. They are made from powdery, crystalline, or granular materials, alone or in combination with binders (adhesive substances), disintegrators (substances facilitating the break up of the tablets after administration), lubricants (materials preventing sticking of the tablets to the punches and dies), and fillers (inner diluents). They are formed into many shapes and sizes. Sugar-Coated Tablets (S.C.T.). These are compressed tablets containing a sugar coating. Such coatings are beneficial in covering up medicinals possessing objectionable tastes or odours, and in protecting sensitive medicinals subjects to deterioration. Enteric-Coated Tablets (E.C.T.). These are compressed tablets coated with substances that resist solution in gastric fluid but disintegrate and release their medication in the intestine. Chocolate-Coloured Tablets (C.C.T.). The abbreviation C.C.T. indicates a chocolatecoloured tablet. Originally chocolate was used as a colouring material and the same designation referred to chocolate-coated tablets. Iron oxides, standardizes as to colour are now available and largely replace chocolate for this purpose. Moulded Tablets or Tablet Triturates (T.T.). T.T. originally referred to tablet triturates, made from moist materials on a triturate mould which gave them the shape of cut selections of a cylinder. Such tablets must be completely and rapidly soluble. Tablet triturates are now usually made by compression on a tablet machine. Hypodermic Tablets (H.T.). Hypodermic tablets are those made in a tablet triturate mould and are intended for use in making hypodermic preparations for injection. Such tablets must be made with absolute cleanliness for they are usually used to prepare parenteral solutions extemporaneously (ex-tempore). Therefore, they must be completely and rapidly soluble in the vehicle.

Parenteral preparations Parenteral preparations or injections are those sterile solutions or suspensions used for administering pharmaceutical preparations by various routes of injection, such as intravenous, subcutaneous, intramuscular and intraspinal. These injectable materials are usually made available in either ampoules or vials and, although they are rarely preparated by the individual pharmacist, they constitute a large industry in the pharmaceutical field. They are preferred by physicians for patients who need immediate therapeutic relief or those who are unable to take food or drugs by mouth. Also, many substances when given orally are either destroyed or cannot be absorbed from the intestinal tract and must be given by one of the parenteral routes. Parenteral solutions and suspensions must be prepared with the greatest of care by properly trained personnel. A thorough understanding of sterility is required as well as the proper compounding of the drugs to be administered by injection. The operating room personnel and the hospital pharmacist in many instances must combine their activities in the preparation and sterilization of injections. However, the larger hospital may require an entire department headed by a hospital pharmacist, whose duty is to prepare such products. A very important part in the production of parenteral solutions is the packaging, since not only should these drugs be sterile but they must be packaged in containers properly designed to maintain sterility. Most of these preparations are now classified as injections, although a few of the injectable liquids are still officially known as solutions anticoagulant: acid citrate, dextrose solution being an example. In general the preparation of a parenteral solution consists of the following steps: an aqueous solution of the drug is made, it is filtered clear, and then dispensed in measured amounts into ampoules or vials, sterilized and tested for sterility. If the material is subject to pyrogen testing, a Pyrogen Test is run and good pharmaceutical practice should require some sort of animal safety test. If the material will not withstand heat sterilization in the final container, then the solution must be sterilized by passing through bacteria removing filter and an aseptic technique, employing sterile equipment, must be used. Solutions for injection are preferably manufactured, filled into containers, sealed, and sterilized within one day in order to minimize the changes of contamination and growth, and the formation of pyrogens. Lesson 15 Unreal tenses and subjunctives Unreal tenses Its (high) time + past simple/cont (unreal time) Its time we left. / Its high time I was/were going. Wishes 1) wishes about present states: I wish + past simple/cont. (was informal)

I wish I had a motorbike. / I wish you werent leaving. / I wish I was going on holiday with you. 2) wishes about past states: I wish + past perfect I wish I hadnt eaten so much. If only I had gone to your party last week! (emphatic use regret) 3) wishes about future events: with would (=decided to) or could (ability, future) I wish you would leave. / I wish I could come on holiday with you next year. I wish you wouldnt make such a mess! (annoying habit) Hope: wishes about simple future events I hope it doesnt rain tomorrow. / I hope hell stop talking soon! Id rather / Id sooner + past tenses (personal preference): Id rather you didnt smoke in here. + normal tenses when comparing nouns or phrases: Id rather be a sailor than a soldier. (present) Id rather have lived in Ancient Greece than Ancient Rome. (past) Id prefer it + past tense: Id prefer it if you didnt go. (unreal time) Id prefer + a real tense: Id prefer you not to go. (Id prefer tea to coffee.) As if, as though (real and unreal) He acts as if he were in charge. (He isnt in charge.) He acts as if he is in charge. (He is in charge.) I feel as if I were flying! (present reference unreal) I feel as if an express train had hit me. (past reference unreal) Suppose and imagine understood conditions Imagine we won the match! (present reference) Suppose someone told you that I was a spy! (present reference) Imagine wed never met! (past reference) Formal subjunctives it has only one form the infinitive; it is also used after verbs such as demand, insist, suggest, require or expressions such as it is necessary, essential, important that etc. They demanded that he leave at once. / It is essential that you arrive before six. Less formal usage: They demanded that he should leave. They demanded that he left. (informal no tense change) It is essential for you to arrive before six. (infinitive construction) Formulaic subjunctive (fixed expressions): God save the Queen! Be that as it may Come what may