What is Hard Gelatin Capsules and Their Different Sizes?

Medicines are formulated in various dosage forms. One of them is capsules.

 Capsules are of two types:

1. Soft Gelatin Capsules

2. Hard Gelatin Capsules

Here we will talk about hard gelatin capsules, basically they are made up of gelatin, now a days we can also get vegetarian capsules made up of hydroxy propyl methyl cellulose.

Hard gelatin capsules are cylindrical shape capsules divided into two parts: Body and cap. Body part is longer as compared to cap part. Medicaments like fine powder, granular powder, small pellets, small tablets etc can be filled in hard gelatin capsules through capsule filling machine. Locking of capsules are very important after filling process, it can be assured by checking locking length. Locking lengths are depends on size of capsules.

Hard gelatin capsules are available in different sizes like:

• Size ‘’5’’- they are the smallest size of capsules, having averageweight approx. 28 mg.
• Size’’4’’- they are little bigger size as compared to size’’5’’ capsules, having averageweight approx. 38 mg.
• Size’’3’’- they are bigger than size’’4’’ capsules, having average weight approx. 48 mg.
• Size ’’2’’- they are  bigger than size ‘’3’’ capsules, having average weight approx. 61 mg.
• Size ‘’1’’ – they are bigger than size ‘’2’’ capsules, having average weight approx. 76 mg.
• Size ‘’0’’ – they are bigger than size ‘’1’’ capsules, having average weight approx. 99 mg.
• Size ’’00’’ – they are bigger than size ‘’0’’ capsules, having average weight approx. 123 mg.
• Size ‘’000’’ – they are the biggest size in all the capsules, having average weight approx. 158 mg.

Pharmaceutical manufacturers choose the size of capsules according to the label claim of the drug and fill weight of formulation. Companies like Affy group is a hard gelatin capsule manufacturerin India. They have their formulations in different sizes of capsules according to their fill weight.