In vivo evaluation of taste masking for developed chewable and orodispersible tablets in humans and rats.

Rats have inherent licking behavior and responses to good and aversive tasting stimuli, which are comparable to humans. Taste masking of chewable and orodispersible tablets of an iron EDTA complex salt was evaluated using rat behavioral avoidance model, brief access test. Taste-masked chewable and orodispersible tablets of iron EDTA complex were prepared using various flavors and sweeteners as taste-masking agents. These formulations were presented to rats and their responses were recorded in terms of licking frequency and other avoidance responses. Formulations were also presented to human volunteers and a correlation between responses of humans and rats was tried to be established. Taste responses of rats were found to be similar to those of humans. A high correlation between the taste responses of rats and humans was observed. Evaluation of taste masking using human panels presents several difficulties such as ethical concerns, fatigue and subjectivity. Thus, rat behavioral avoidance model can be considered as a good alternative to taste assessment by human volunteers for further such investigations.