Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I want to do this project for a science fair, but I have no idea what materials I should use and how many trials I should run, duration etc.. some background would help!

When you take medicine, it needs to dissolve in order to be passed into your bloodstream to have an effect. On the other hand, the drug needs to be packed into a small, dense pill to make it easier to swallow. How does the delivery method of a drug change how quickly it enters the bloodstream? Compare different brands of a drug to find out which brands dissolve the quickest. Does the pH of the stomach (which is usually between 1 and 2) matter? Compare coated to uncoated pills: does the coating make it more difficult to dissolve? Compare traditional pills to gel capsules: which ones work the best?

Hi samrina19,

The project description is really vague, but I'd suggest you try out some every day drugs like aspirin, tylenol (acetaminophen), advil (ibuprofen). Drop it in a glass of water and see how fast it dissolves. You can stir the water as another condition. Add some lemon juice to change acidity and test again.

There's a lot of different ways to approach this, so you can be creative. How about you post some ideas here and then we can construct a plan for you?

Peter S.

Hi Samrina,

This is a great project idea! Adding onto Pswiatko’s suggestions, there are many different “Home tests” to determine how effectively a certain pill will dissolve in the body. I found one with a thorough procedure and background information at this link: https://www.consumerlab.com/results/hometest.asp Instead of just dropping it in cold water, it suggests the use of hot water for at least 30 minutes, as this is the quantity of time that most pills take to disintegrate. Furthermore, the US uses the "Disintegration and Dissolution of Dietary Supplements" as the typical laboratory test to examine whether a pill can dissolve in the body, however it uses special equipment. The passage of pills in the body transitions from the acidic environment of the stomach, to the neutral condition of the small intestine. Therefore, if you want to incorporate pH into your experiment, like pswiatko suggested, you could make some cups acidic through lemon juice (ascorbic acid) and some have just plain water.

Hope this helps!

~Catherine M.

Hello!
Thank you both for the quick replies!
I would really love both of your inputs and help on this.
I'm kind of lost on this project but I was thinking about making my project based on the solubility of DRUGS in stomach acid conditions.
my question should be phrased in a "what is the affect of.... on ....."
so i was thinking for my question to be, "What is the effect of stomach acid on the dissolution of pain relieving tablets?"
I also was looking at this previous project for inspiration and ideas to do mine.
http://www.all-science-fair-projects.co ... 01025.html
except for the fact that I don't have availibility of the magnetic stirrers and I wasn't planning on using the temperatures as a factor.


Maybe I could do this:
Experimental Set-up:
Sample Size: 100 mL of simulated stomach acid, 5 different brands of pills (Tylenol, Aspirin, Ibuprofen, Advil, Acetaminophen) at least 3 tablets of each brand.
Number of Trials: 3 trials
Negative Control: Distilled water
Positive Control: simulated stomach acid (hydrochloric acid)
Independent Variable: the different pain relievers
Dependent Variable: dissolving time of the tablets
Controlled Variable: the amount of water (125 ml), amount of Hydrochloric acid (100 ml), place the experiment was conducted, strength of pain relievers (regular strength), pH of simulated stomach acid, test procedures, stirring method

(NEED to have all the variables and controls listed)

IDEA #1
Gather two 100 ml beakers, and fill with simulated stomach acid (hydrochloric acid or maybe lemon water) to 50 mL.
Transfer liquid from beaker into 50 mL tubes (that is filled with simulated stomach acid) so they can be placed on vortexers to mix. Place a tablet in the acid and start time. Once a tablet is totally dissolved stop the timer in which was timing it. Repeat these steps for each tablet, record the times that dissolving took, and perform three trials.
problem: I would have to stop the stirring of the vortexer to see how much each tablet is dissolved and that would create ambiguity in the data I'd think. any ideas??

IDEA #2
Inspired by you guys, Maybe i could do the same thing except let the tablets sit instead of being stirred so that I can monitor the dissolution times more accurately but may take longer? and this way i might be able to see which one actually dissolved quicker in a simulated stomach acid environment.


Any feedback? (:
thanks again!


Measure:
I will measure how long it takes for each pain reliever to dissolve in seconds, by a timer.