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Suitability of E-tongue Sensors to Assess Taste-Masking of Pediatric Liquids by Different Beverages Considering Their Physico-chemical Properties

  • Research Article
  • Theme: Pediatric Drug Development and Dosage Form Design
  • Published:
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ABSTRACT

Manipulation of liquid oral drugs by mixing them into foodstuff is a common procedure for taste-masking of OTC pharmaceuticals when administered to children. However, the taste-masking capability of such application media is not systematically evaluated, and recommendations for suitable media are hardly published. In this study, a sensor array of commercially available and self-developed electronic tongue sensors was employed to assess the taste-masking efficiency of eight different beverages (tap water, apple juice, carrot juice, fennel tea, fruit tea, milk, cocoa, and Alete meal to drink) on the OTC pharmaceuticals Ambroxol-ratiopharm®, Cetirizin AL, and Laxoberal® by multivariate data analysis. The Euclidean distances between each pure application medium and its corresponding drug mixture were used as an indicator for the taste-masking efficiency and correlated to the physico-chemical properties of the beverages. Thus, the pH value, the viscosity, as well as the fat and sugar content of the beverages were included, whereas only the viscosity appeared to be insignificant in all cases. The sugar content as well as the fat content and pH value emerged to be a significant variable in taste-masking efficiency for some of the tested drug products. It was shown that the applied electronic tongue sensors were capable to demonstrate the impact of the physico-chemical properties of the application media on their taste-masking capacity regardless of their non-selectivity towards these characteristics.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics, Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, 40225, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Laura Isabell Immohr, Claas Hedfeld, Artur Lang & Miriam Pein-Hackelbusch

  2. Life Science Technologies, University of Applied Sciences Ostwestfalen-Lippe, Georg-Weerth-Strasse 20, 32756, Detmold, Germany

    Miriam Pein-Hackelbusch

Authors
  1. Laura Isabell Immohr
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  2. Claas Hedfeld
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  4. Miriam Pein-Hackelbusch
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Correspondence to Miriam Pein-Hackelbusch.

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Guest Editors: Maren Preis and Jörg Breitkreutz

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Immohr, L.I., Hedfeld, C., Lang, A. et al. Suitability of E-tongue Sensors to Assess Taste-Masking of Pediatric Liquids by Different Beverages Considering Their Physico-chemical Properties. AAPS PharmSciTech 18, 330–340 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1208/s12249-016-0526-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1208/s12249-016-0526-y

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