if active ingredients make up a tiny portion of each pill, why are some pills so large?

Question

Just swallowed 2 Nyquil and they were unpleasantly large to swallow. Got me wondering.

In: Biology

Answer 1

There are two major issues the “shell” of the pill is meant to deal with.

First, surviving digestion. Your stomach has acid, and that could ruin the medication, and the actual absorption part happens in your intestines. The pill is designed to survive that acid, or at least make sure that the actual medication is released at the right time as it goes through you.

Second, dosage over time. If you want a pill that provides 24 hour relief, you need to release the actual medication slowly over those 24 hours, roughly. If it all goes into you at once, you get a spike of the medication and it wears off as your body uses it and cleans it up. The pill may provide a slow release so that you get a more even dose of medication over those hours.