# The Effect of Pharmaceutical Excipients for Applying to Spray-Dried Omega-3 Powder
## 1 Introduction  
Solid formulations are highly preferred in the pharmaceutical market because they easy to administer and have superior stability during storage. On the other hand, the liquid formulation is easily hydrolyzed and oxidized. Oil components such as fatty acid were filled into soft capsules and marketed. However, these soft capsules have still some problems by leaking. In particular, the omega-3 is an unsaturated fatty acid, which is composed of DHA (docosahexaenoicenoic acid) and EPA (eicosapentaenic acid). DHA or EPA is composed of 20 or 22 carbon atoms with five or six double bonds and has a first double bond at the third methyl group from the \(\omega\) side. EPA was formed from \(\alpha\)-linolenic acid (18:3 \(\omega\)-3) and DHA was obtained from EPA. \(\alpha\)-Linolenic acid was synthesized from linoleic acid (18:2 \(\omega\)-6). Both \(\alpha\)-linolenic acid and linoleic acid have been regarded as essential fatty acids because they cannot be synthesized in the body. However, the efficiency of the \(\alpha\)-linolenic acid converted to EPA and DHA in adults is low with about 10-15%, about 3-6% in children [1]. It has been reported that intake of EPA and DHA may help to improve blood circulation, stimulate the breakdown of fibrin, and reduce blood pressure and blood triglyceride levels [2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7]. Therefore, customers had better take foods containing a lot of DHA and EPA in order to expect the effect of EPA and DHA. Long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids such as omega-3 are easily oxidized, leading to instability.  
This limitation yields their shelf-life only 6 months, when stored at 4 \({}^{\circ}\)C in a closed container under nitrogen [8].  
So, there are many advantages as follows: firstly, possible reduction in the volume of administration (e.g., converting a liquid emulsions or suspensions containing more than 50% liquid into the dry state that can be filled/processed into single capsule or tablet unit) if omega-3 changes into solid forms. Secondly, enhanced precise dosing (e.g., packing of the whole dose into capsules/tablets provides more accurate and precise dosing in comparison to administering a prescribed volume of a suspension using a syringe or spoon). Thirdly, ease of transfer and storage (i.e., liquid formulations are bulky and typically prone to instability and microbial contamination). Fourthly, better patient compliance (i.e., it is generally preferred by adult patients to administer capsules/tablets rather than a liquid formulation) [2; 4; 5; 6]. As well as, the herbal extracts, for example, mulberry extracts need to be solidified for the stability. The general approaches for solidification include physical adsorption onto solid carriers, spray drying, freeze-drying or lyophilization, rotary evaporation, melt extrusion-spheronization and melt granulation [9]. Omega-3 fatty acids are essential nutrients that are important in preventing and managing heart disease, which are in a class of medications called antilipidemic or lipid-regulating agents. Therefore, authors focused on the preparation and characterization of spray-dried omega-3 powder for the combination with other medications. First of all, the optimization was performed using a cheap olive oil instead of an expensive omega-3 for the preparation of a spray-dried powder in this study.