Research Article Optimization of Pregelatinized Taro Boloso-I Starch as a Direct Compression Tablet Excipient Tamrat Balcha Balla , 1,2 Nisha Mary Joseph, 1 and Anteneh Belete 1,3 1 Department of Pharmaceutics and Social Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy, College of Health Sciences, Addis Ababa University, P.O. Box 9086, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 2 School of Pharmacy, College of Health Sciences and Medicine, Wolaita Sodo University, P.O. Box 158, Wolaita Sodo, Ethiopia 3 Center for Innovative Drug Development and Therapeutic Trials for Africa (CDT-Africa), College of Health Sciences, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Correspondence should be addressed to Tamrat Balcha Balla; tamrat.balcha@wsu.edu.et Received 2 August 2022; Revised 5 January 2023; Accepted 7 January 2023; Published 16 January 2023 Academic Editor: Ahmed AH Abdellatif Copyright © 2023 Tamrat Balcha Balla et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Background. Tablets are still the most preferred means of drug delivery. The search for new and improved direct compression tablet excipients is an area of research focus. This is because the direct compression method overcomes the drawbacks of granulation methods of tablet production. It exempts several treatment steps associated with the granulation methods. The requirements for the powders to be directly compressible include flowability, low friction tendency, compressibility, and fast disintegration capacity. Taro Boloso-I is a new variety of Colocasia esculenta (L. Schott) yielding 67% more than a previously reported variety (Godare) in Ethiopia. This study is aimed at enhancing the flowability while keeping the compressibility and compactibility of the pregelatinized Taro Boloso-I starch. Methods. Central composite design was used for the optimization of two factors which were the temperature and duration of pregelatinization against 4 responses. The responses were angle of repose, Hausner’s ratio, Heckel’s yield pressure, and tablet breaking force. Results and Discussions. An increase in the temperature resulted in decrease in both the angle of repose and the Hausner ratio and that of time decreased angle of repose as well. The Heckel yield pressure was observed to increase with increasing levels of both temperature and time. The pregelatinized starch prepared by heating 15% slurry of Taro Boloso-I starch at the pregelatinization temperature of 66.22 ° C for 20 min showed desired flow property and compressibility. Conclusions. Pregelatinized Taro Boloso-I starch could be regarded as a potential direct compression excipient in terms of flowability, compressibility, and compactibility. The PGTBIS could perform better as filler and binder in direct compression tablets than the Starch 1500® in terms of compactibility. 1. Introduction Solid dosage forms, especially tablets, are still the most preferred means of drug delivery [1, 2]. The search for new and improved direct compression tablet excipients is an area of research focus. This is because the direct compression method overcomes the drawbacks of granulation methods of tablet production. It exempts several treatment steps asso- ciated with the granulation methods. The requirements for the powders to be directly compressible include flowability, low friction tendency, compressibility, and fast disintegra- tion capacity [3–7]. While starch is one of the leading poly- mers of preference for use as a pharmaceutical excipient, it has notable limitations including poor flowability and com- pressibility. However, native Taro Boloso-I starch is unique in that it has appreciable compressibility properties [8] while having very poor flow properties [9]. Unless some physical modifications such as pregelatinization or chemical modifi- cations are employed to enhance the flow property, many of the potential functionalities such as direct compression properties of the native starch could not be utilized [10, 11]. Pregelatinization is claimed to improve the flowability of starches [12, 13]. It has been reported that the direct com- pression properties of starches would be enhanced following Hindawi BioMed Research International Volume 2023, Article ID 9981311, 15 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2023/9981311