Review on taste masking approaches in oral pharmaceutical dosage forms

The majority of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) found in oral dosage forms have unpleasant or obnoxious taste including, bitter, sour, salt, sweet and umami tastes. Taste is now one of the most important factors influencing the quality of the product, hence therapeutic value, compliance, and acceptance of the patient. Masking the unpleasant taste of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) is a major challenge in the pharmaceutical oral dosage form design and in the development of such oral dosage forms, especially those used for pediatric patients. The desire of improved palatability in these products has prompted the development of numerous formulations with improved performance and acceptability. This reason is an initiative for the development of various taste masking technologies by which the characteristics of the dosage form is improved and good patient compliance is achieved. The present article reviews the earlier applications and methodologies of taste masking and discusses the most recent developments and approaches of bitterness reduction and to give an idea about the traditional and recent taste masking evaluation techniques whereby, increasing palatability for oral pharmaceuticals.