Free-flowing, high density, agglomerated vitamin A powder compositions

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Free-flowing high density agglomerates suitable for direct compression into tablets, prepared by the process of this invention, i.
e.
, the introduction of ultra-fine particle-sized absorbents into the spray chamber, can be obtained by either of two modifications.
In the first modification the absorbents are metered directly into the spray chamber.
The quantity of absorbent metered into the chamber ranges from about 1% to about 5% by weight based on the weight of the spray-dried product.
The fine particle size absorbent immediately coats the semi-dried droplets as well as the chamber wall thus preventing buildup of material on the chamber wall and the consequent deleterious formation of large masses of wet product.
In addition, the presence of the absorbent minimizes the development of static electricity both during the spray-drying step and on the resulting dry agglomerates.
In the second modification, a mixture of absorbent and previously fine particle-sized spray-dried material is directly metered into the spray chamber by a suitable valve arrangement.
The mixture is immediately picked up by the high velocity air stream from the air disperser in the chamber and is intimately admixed with the atomized wet spray product, thereby forming coated agglomerates which dry readily.
This second modification results in formation of large dried agglomerates when the metered admixture comprises from about 1 to about 15% by weight of the absorbent and from about 85 to about 99% by weight of the fine particle-sized spray-dried product.
Examples of the fine particle-sized spray-dried materials include vitamin E encapsulated in hydrolyzed gelatin, vitamin A encapsulated in hydrolyzed gelatin, vitamin A encapsulated in gum acacia, vitamin D encapsulated in hydrolyzed gelatin, riboflavin encapsulated in maltrin and spraydried stabilized calcium pantothenate.
The process claimed herein is, of course, limited to fomulations which can be dried by spray-drying techniques