Abstract
his study investigates the potential of honey, a natural and biocompatible material, as an alternative binder in wet granulation that can be particularly suitable for herbal and pediatric formulations. Lactose monohydrate was used as the model filler. Granules were prepared using wet granulation with distilled water as the granulating fluid. Five concentrations of synthetic binder PVP (1.5–3.5% w/w) and five concentrations of honey (1.5–3.5% w/w) were initially evaluated. Based on initial yield results, a subsequent optimization phase was conducted with honey concentrations ranging from 1.5% to 13.5% w/w at a fixed, lower water concentration (5.5% w/w). The properties of the resulting granules were investigated. The optimal honey formulation was then subjected to a reproducibility study over five batches. The initial results of this study were optimized by increasing honey concentration to 12.5% (with 5.5% water), which significantly improved the yield to 88.3%. This formulation exhibited excellent flow properties (angle of repose: 32.03°, Hausner ratio: 1.07, Carr’s index: 6.83%) and low friability (9.4%), comparable to high concentration PVP granules. The reproducibility study confirmed the consistency of the 12.5% honey formulation, with minimal batch-to-batch variability. Therefore, in comparison to PVP, honey can be considered an effective and sustainable natural binder for pharmaceutical granulation because at a concentration of 12.5%, it produce