desintegrantes

Desintegrantes, or disintegrants in English, are substances or factors that promote the disintegration or breakdown of a material into smaller units. They can be chemical, physical, or biological in nature and are used across various disciplines to facilitate fragmentation, disintegration, or dissolution. Their role is to weaken cohesive forces, absorb fluids, or otherwise alter the structure of a material so that it breaks apart more easily.

In pharmaceutics, disintegrants are excipients included in tablets and capsules to promote disintegration after ingestion. When contacted with gastrointestinal fluids, they interact with water, swell, absorb liquid, or form a porous network that helps the dosage form break apart, speeding dissolution and absorption. Common pharmaceutical disintegrants include starch derivatives, crospovidone, croscarmellose sodium, and sodium starch glycolate. The effectiveness of disintegrants depends on factors such as concentration, particle size, formulation, and tablet compression conditions.

In other contexts, desintegrantes refer to factors that cause disintegration of materials, such as rocks or polymers. In geology and geotechnical engineering, physical weathering (freeze–thaw cycles, abrasion), chemical weathering (dissolution, hydrolysis), and biological activity contribute to the breakdown of rocks and soils. In materials science and construction, moisture, temperature fluctuations, oxidation, and mechanical stress can lead to disintegration of composites or binders over time.

The term is used in Spanish-language literature to describe agents that promote disintegration across these domains. See also disintegration, excipients, and material degradation.