Pharmaceutical ink is an ingestible form of
water
Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as a ...
-based ink used on most medicine
pill
Pill or The Pill may refer to:
Drugs
* Pill (pharmacy), referring to anything small for a specific dose of medicine
* "The Pill", a general nickname for the combined oral contraceptive pill
Film and television
* ''The Pill'' (film), a 2011 fil ...
s to indicate which drug it is, and/or how many
milligram
The kilogram (also kilogramme) is the unit of mass in the International System of Units (SI), having the unit symbol kg. It is a widely used measure in science, engineering and commerce worldwide, and is often simply called a kilo colloquially. ...
s the pill contains.
History
The first U.S. patent for pharmaceutical inks was filed on 28 June 1966, and its method involved
ethyl alcohol
Ethanol (abbr. EtOH; also called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, drinking alcohol, or simply alcohol) is an organic compound. It is an alcohol with the chemical formula . Its formula can be also written as or (an ethyl group linked to a hyd ...
,
shellac
Shellac () is a resin secreted by the female lac bug on trees in the forests of India and Thailand. It is processed and sold as dry flakes and dissolved in alcohol to make liquid shellac, which is used as a brush-on colorant, food glaze and ...
,
titanium dioxide
Titanium dioxide, also known as titanium(IV) oxide or titania , is the inorganic compound with the chemical formula . When used as a pigment, it is called titanium white, Pigment White 6 (PW6), or CI 77891. It is a white solid that is insolubl ...
and
propylene glycol
Propylene glycol (IUPAC nomenclature, IUPAC name: propane-1,2-diol) is a viscous, colorless liquid, which is nearly odorless but possesses a faintly sweet taste. Its chemical formula is CH3CH(OH)CH2OH.
Containing two Alcohol (chemistry), alcoho ...
.
Most pharmaceutical inks since the early 1990s eliminate ethyl alcohol in favour of faster ink drying times, and may include
methyl alcohol
Methanol (also called methyl alcohol and wood spirit, amongst other names) is an organic chemical and the simplest aliphatic alcohol, with the formula C H3 O H (a methyl group linked to a hydroxyl group, often abbreviated as MeOH). It is a lig ...
and
isopropanol
Isopropyl alcohol (IUPAC name propan-2-ol and also called isopropanol or 2-propanol) is a colorless, flammable organic compound with a pungent alcoholic odor. As an isopropyl group linked to a hydroxyl group (chemical formula ) it is the simple ...
in addition to the traditional ingredients titanium dioxide and propylene glycol.
External links
U.S. Patent no. 3,258,347- original pharmaceutical ink patent
- eliminates ethanol in favor of faster ink drying times
See also
*
Pharmaceutical glaze Resinous glaze is an alcohol-based solution of various types of food-grade shellac. The shellac is derived from the raw material sticklac, which is a resin scraped from the branches of trees left from when the small insect, ''Kerria lacca'' (also kn ...
Inks
Pharmacy