The invention is concerned with film-forming compositions containing hydrolysates of the exopolysaccharide YAS34 for the use in pharmaceutical, veterinary, food, cosmetic or other products like films for wrapping food, aspics or jellies, preferably for predosed formulations like soft or hard capsules.

This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. .sctn. 120 to U.S. Application No. 10/344,117, filed Feb. 6, 2003 which claimed priority to PCT/EP01/09593, filed Aug. 21, 2001 and European Patent Application 00402437.8, filed Sep. 5, 2000.

The invention is concerned with film-forming compositions containing hydrolysates of the new exopolysaccharide YAS34 for the use in pharmaceutical, veterinary, food, cosmetic or other products like films for wrapping food, aspics or jellies, preferably for predosed formulations like soft or hard capsules.

A second embodiment of the invention is the use of the inventive composition for the manufacture of hard capsules by conventional dip molding process as normally used in the production of conventional hard gelatin capsules.

The new exopolysaccharide (EPS) is a bacterial polysaccharide "YAS34", produced by the soil bacteria Rhizobium Leguminasorum and developed under the trade name Soligel by ARD (Pomacle, France).

The repeating unit of YAS34 consisting of one glucuronic acid (GlcA), six neutral sugars of which 3 are galactoses (Gal) and 3 are glucoses (Glc), one pyruvate group and 1.6 acetate groups in average per unit (not located yet) is shown in scheme I -- see Original Patent.

The production of YAS34 and the use as thickening agent, gelling agent, suspension agent, water retention agent, soil aggregation agent, texturing agent and seed coating agent is disclosed in WO98/35993.

YAS34 has a thermal reversible gelling ability and excellent properties for forming films with sufficient mechanical characteristics for the manufacturing of capsules, especially hard capsules. A disadvantage of the YAS34-films however is the poor water solubility at 37.degree. C. It takes 50 minutes to dissolve a film of 100 .mu.m thickness whereas a conventional gelatin film will be dissolved in only 2 minutes. A further disadvantage of YAS34 is its very high viscosity resulting from the very high molecular weight of the polysaccharide. But high viscosity and gelling ability result in the impossibility of forming films by casting or dip moulding, especially for hard capsules from solutions having an EPS concentration above 10%. Especially for the production of hard capsules high solid contents of the film forming aqueous solution are required. Low solid content will result in non-uniform film forming, long drying time and low productivity.

Surprisingly we have found that the disadvantages can be overcome by hydrolysis of YAS34, which reduces efficiently the molecular weight and the viscosity of the aqueous solution viscosity. Furthermore the solubility of the polysaccharide film is significantly improved. Though some alterations of the mechanical properties have been observed, they remain at an acceptable level for the requirements of hard capsules.

The original polysaccharide YAS34 has a molecular weight of 1,400,000. An aqueous solution of 5% by weight gelatinizes at 60.degree. C. and the the working temperature has to be above 60.degree. C. for capsule manufacturing. If the concentration is increased to 10%, the working temperature has to be increased above 80.degree. C. Such conditions are quite inconvenient and energy consuming for an industrial manufacturing process.

The hydrolysis of YAS34 under acid conditions is very efficient as demonstrated in experiments. Under the conditions given in example 1, within one hour, the molecular weight of the polysaccharide is reduced below 200,000 which can be used for the preparation of film-forming aqueous solutions with a content above 20%. Such solutions have acceptable viscosity even at room temperature. For this reason the molecular weight of the hydrolyzed YAS34 is preferably between 500,000 and 10,000 which allows the preparation of film-forming solutions in the range from 10 to 50% by weight.

Within the preferred Mw range the mechanical properties of the film remain quite acceptable even for hard capsule production.

Conventional hard capsules are produced from gelatin by a dip moulding process. This process is based on the setting ability of hot gelatin solution by cooling. On a totally automatic industrial hard gelatin capsule machine, mould pins are dipped into hot gelatin solution, the pins are removed from the solution, inverted, the gelatin solution (gel) remaining on the pins dried, stripped off the capsule shells and finally cap and body of the capsules cut and pre-joined. The immediate setting of the gelatin solution on the mould pins after dipping is the key step in the process. Otherwise, the gelatin solution would flow down to form capsules with non-uniform wall thickness and unacceptable properties.

However the aqueous solution of the hydrolyzed polysaccharide YAS34 does not gelatinize at room temperature and does not have the necessary setting ability for hard capsule manufacturing by the described conventional dip moulding process. Surprisingly we have found that the addition of an additional setting agent to the aqueous solution or to the film-forming composition allows the adjustment and optimization of the setting ability of the solution to achieve uniform shell thickness of hard capsules.

Preferred setting agents for the inventive film-forming compositions or the aqueous solutions thereof are carrageenan, gellan gum, pectin, agarose, gelatin, xanthan with locust bean gum, xanthan with konjac, or unhydrolyzed YAS34. The preferred content of the setting agent in the solid film composition is 0.5% to 15% by weight. In the aqueous solution the setting agent is in the range of 0.05% to 5% by weight. Optionally the gelling agents are combined with mono or divalent cations like Calcium Ca.sup.++ or Mg.sup.++, e.g. water-soluble salts thereof, preferably in the aqueous solution in an amount of 0.01 to 3% or in the solid film composition in an amount of 0.1 to 5% by weight.

Aqueous solutions of the inventive film-forming composition containing hydrolyzed YAS34 and a setting agent and the films derived therefrom have following advantages: High solid content which improves significantly the feasibility of different manufacturing processes. Sufficient setting ability for hard capsule production by conventional dip moulding process. High solubility of the films, suitable for predosed formulations such as hard capsules, soft capsules, tablet coating and ingredient packaging. Acceptable mechanical properties of the films for hard capsules allowing filling and blistering operations.

The inventive composition may contain in a further aspect additional plasticizer, especially for soft film formulations such as soft capsules.

The inventive composition may contain in a further aspect additional coloring agents or flavoring agents.

The hard capsules of the invention may be used as containers for providing unit dosage forms, e.g. for agrochemicals, seeds, herbs, foodstuffs, dyestuffs, pharmaceuticals, flavouring agents and the like.
 

Claim 1 of 14 Claims

1. A film forming composition capable of forming hard capsules with uniform thickness, the composition comprising an aqueous solution, 10 50% by weight (based on the aqueous solution) of hydrolyzed exopolysaccharide EPS YAS34 and a setting agent.

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