Medicated Lozenges: An Updated Review

Abstract

Lozenges are palatable solid unit dosage form administered in oral cavity. Lozenges have been in use since 20^th century and are still in commercial production. The lozenges are solid medicated, flavored and sweetened base dosage forms intended to be sucked and hold in the mouth/pharynx. The benefits of the medicated lozenges is they increase the retention time of the dosage form in oral cavity which increases bioavailability, reduces gastric irritation and bypasses first pass metabolism. Different types of lozenges available in market are caramel based medicated lozenges, compressed tablet lozenges, hard lozenges and soft lozenges and their methods of preparation along with ingredients used in their preparation are discussed. Lozenges have bright future as a novel method of delivering drugs for local action and systemic effect in the oral cavity. The present review covers more or less all aspects associated with lozenges and also throws light on the application of lozenges. It includes various researches till date, formulation and evaluation parameters, packaging and applications of lozenges.