1.

Compare the physical characteristics of the suspensions and give your

comment.
Pediatric
chalk
mixture
I

Amount
of
tragacanth
(g)
0.0

Texture

Clarity and
appearance

Colour of
suspension

More watery, less viscous,

easy to sediment and
disperse
Viscous, easy to sediment
and disperse

II

0.1

III

0.3

Viscous, less easy to

sediment, easily disperse

Less cloudy, 2
layer on
sedimentation
Opaque,
moderate
cloudy
Opaque, more
cloudy

Less milky

IV

0.5

Highly viscous, difficult to

sediment

Opaque and
highly cloudy

Milky
white

Milky
white
Milky
white

The 4 suspension preparation has different composition of tragacanth. Tragacanth is a

suspending agent which increases the viscosity of suspension and thus slowing down the
sedimentation of particles within suspension. Tragacanth increases the viscosity by
providing structures to the medium. As the amount of tragacanth increases, the texture
of suspension will become less watery and more viscous. The higher the viscosity, the
more difficult to sediment.
All of the suspension appeared cloudy, the cloudiness indicates the particles dispersed in
liquid medium. In suspension I (without suspending agent: tragacanth) , it is less cloudy
and easy sediment to form 2 layer ( liquid and sedimentation).

3.
Plot the graph of height of solid phase against time for different amount of
tragacanth in the suspension. Give your comment.

Time (minute)

Amount of 0.0
tragacant
0.1
h (g)
0.3
0.5

Height of the sediment (millimetre)

0

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

55

60

9.5

1.8

1.2

1.2

1.2

1.2

1.2

1.2

1.2

1.2

1.2

1.2

1.2

11.9

11.9

11.8

11.7

11.7

11.4

11.2

11.1

10.8

10.7

10.6

10.6

10.4

11

11

12

13

13

14

14

14

14

14

14

10

15

18

20

21

22

22

22

22

Height of sedimentation against time

25
0

20

0.1

15

0.3
0.5

10
5
0
0

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

55

60

Graph above relates the height of sedimentation against time for 4 suspension
formulation. Tragacanth acts as suspending agent, it slows down the sedimentation by
structuring the continuous phase to produce a deflocculated system. For formulation with
optimum amount of tragacanth, the system is stable and no slow flocculation occurs.
Tragacanth enables the particles to remained suspended for a longer time within
suspension and take longer time to sediment.

The greater amount of tragacanth, it will slows down sedimentation of particles and form
a lower height of sedimentation. Thus, suspension IV with 0.5g tragacanth shows
slowest sedimentation compared to others suspension.
The suspension I without any tragacanth achieve constant height of sedimentation in
very short time of 10 minutes remains constant throughout 60 minutes. It is because the
suspension without suspending agent (tragacanth), there will be rapid sedimentation as
compared to other curve and it has maximum height of sediments as compared to graph
of other suspensions.