Soft capsules are a new dosage form developed after tablets and injections. They quantitatively inject and encapsulate oily drugs, drug solutions or drug suspensions, paste like substances, and even drug powders into a gel film, forming sealed capsules of different sizes and shapes, which can be prepared by dropwise or compression methods. Soft capsule materials are made from gelatin, glycerol, plasticizers, preservatives, shading agents, pigments, and other suitable medicinal materials. There are various sizes and shapes of it, including spherical (0.15-0.3ml), elliptical (0.10-0.5ml), rectangular (0.3-0.8ml), and cylindrical (0.4-4.5ml). It can be made into different varieties for oral or external use according to clinical needs. The capsule shell has high elasticity, so it is also called elastic capsule or capsule.

The shape of soft capsules generally follows the labeling method of American manufacturers, which is represented by English words or their abbreviations of shape. For example, the long circle is called Oblong in English, abbreviated as OB; Olive shaped, English for Oval, abbreviated as OV; Spherical, should be Round, abbreviated as R; Fish shaped, English for Fish, abbreviated as F, and so on.
Although we often talk about how many milligrams of soft capsules are, the size of a soft capsule is actually defined by its volume. Because the medication pump of the soft capsule machine is a multi-channel plunger pump, the diameter and movement distance of the plunger determine the volume of the medication injection. In addition, there will be significant differences in the specific gravity of different drugs, and defining the size of soft capsules based on quality will bring inconvenience to mold design.
The size of a soft capsule is expressed in drops and is commonly referred to as a number. 1 drop=0.0616 milliliters=61.6 cubic millimeters.

The Main Characteristics of Soft Capsules:

  1. Neat and aesthetically pleasing, easy to swallow, and able to mask the unpleasant odor of medication.
  2. The loading is uniform and accurate, with a solution loading accuracy of ± 1%, especially suitable for loading drugs with strong efficacy and significant side effects after overdose.
  3. Soft capsules * sealed, their thickness can prevent oxygen from entering, so they can improve the stability of volatile drugs or drugs that are prone to spoilage when exposed to air, and make
    Drugs have a long storage period.
  4. Suitable for low melting point solid drugs that are difficult to compress or deform during storage.
  5. It can improve the bioavailability of drugs.
  6. It can be made into enteric soft capsules and sustained-release preparations.
    If it is an oily drug, absorption, solidification and other technical treatments can be omitted, which can effectively prevent the leakage of oily drugs from the absorption excipients. Therefore, soft capsules are suitable dosage forms for oily drugs.
    In addition, low melting point drugs, hydrophobic drugs with poor bioavailability, drugs with unpleasant bitterness and odor, trace amounts of active drugs, and drugs that are unstable and prone to oxidation when exposed to light, humidity, and heat are also suitable for making soft capsules.