Development of a novel approach towards predicting the milling behaviour of pharmaceutical powders.

A novel approach has been developed for evaluating the milling behaviour of pharmaceutical powders based on their material and mechanical properties obtained by single particle impact testing. Milling behaviour of two widely used pharmaceutical excipients, namely microcrystalline cellulose and alpha-lactose monohydrate has been analysed in an oscillatory single ball mill. It is found that the milling behaviour of these two powders can be described by analogy with a first-order rate process except for alphaLM at 18Hz of milling frequency.