Study Assesses Medicament Released Using Chewing Gum Delivery

A University of Bristol study assessed how much xylitol is released in medicated chewing gum by using a robot to replicate human chewing motion. This development may provide opportunities to refine drug release from gum via this delivery method. The study, “Development of a Chewing Robot with Built-in Humanoid Jaws to Simulate Mastication to Quantify Robotic Agents Release from Chewing Gums Compared to Human Participants,” published in IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, observed whether a chewing robot with built-in humanoid jaws — complete with artificial saliva — could assess the volume of medicament delivered. “The chewing robot demonstrated a similar release rate of xylitol as human participants,” researchers wrote in the study.

When the team compared the amount of xylitol remaining in the medicated gum after chewing for 5, 10, 15, and 20 minutes, the team found the greatest release of xylitol occurred during the first 5 minutes of chewing, with a small amount of xylitol remaining after 20 minutes, regardless of the subject group.