Study of the Physical Properties of Lemongrass and Lemon Balm Plants for Tablet Production

Hashemi, Ali; Kianmehr, Mohammad Hossein; Massah, Jafar

doi:10.22034/jmpb.2026.371504.2137

Study of the Physical Properties of Lemongrass and Lemon Balm Plants for Tablet Production

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

¹ Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Persian Gulf University Bushehr, Bushehr, Iran

² Department of Agrotechnology, College of Aburaihan, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

10.22034/jmpb.2026.371504.2137

Abstract

The main objective of this study is to investigate some physical properties of lemongrass and lemon balm medicinal plants for tablet production. In this research, the bulk and tapped densities are the most important physical properties of lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus) and lemon balm (Melissa officinalis) powders. Powders prepared with a size of less than 0.3 mm had good flowability. The moisture content was determined to be 0.0681% and 0.0792% for lemongrass and lemon balm, respectively. The design of experiments using the response surface methodology (RSM) of the Box-Behnken Design (BBD) was used by the Minitab-19 software to determine the optimal conditions of the tableting process, including tablet formulation, force, and granule size. The ambient humidity and temperature were constant; the binders at three formulation levels and three force and granule levels were examined in an ANOVA statistical analysis system to study the tableting process. The results showed that by decreasing the amount of polyvinyl pyrrolidone by 3 mg, the force increased and the granule size decreased by 5 N and 10 mm, respectively, which led to an increase in disintegration time, hardness, and a decrease in tablet friability. The physical and mechanical parameters of lemongrass and lemon balm tablets showed that the disintegration time, hardness and friability of lemongrass and lemon balm tablets are 285 S, 30.8 SC, 0.250% and 300 S, 31.3 SC (Strong Cobb units), and 0.245 %, respectively. At the highest force of 5 N in a mold with a diameter of 19×6×10 mm, the highest unit density for lemongrass and lemon balm samples was1.15g.cm^-3 and 1.28 g.cm^-3, respectively, and for particle sizes less than 0.3 mm, the changes in the compression percentage were in the range of 54.76% and 56.18%.

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