Proprietary blend with Explotab(TM) Technology

## Introduction to Advanced Delivery Systems When consumers purchase a dietary supplement, they often focus entirely on the active ingredients—the vitamins, the amino acids, or the exotic botanical extracts. However, clinical biochemists and formulation scientists know a fundamental truth: an active ingredient is completely useless if it cannot be absorbed by the body.

One of the most common issues in the supplement industry is the production of 'rock hard' tablets. To fit large doses of ingredients into a single pill, manufacturers use immense pressure during the tableting process. Without the proper delivery technology, these tightly compressed tablets can pass entirely through the human digestive tract without fully breaking down. This results in wasted money and zero physiological benefit. Enter superdisintegrants, and specifically, Explotab™ Technology.

## What is Explotab™? Explotab™ is a trademarked brand name for **sodium starch glycolate**, a highly specialized pharmaceutical excipient. It belongs to a class of inactive ingredients known as 'superdisintegrants.'

Manufactured by JRS Pharma, Explotab™ is created by taking natural potato starch and subjecting it to two chemical processes: carboxymethylation and cross-linking. 1. **Carboxymethylation** makes the starch incredibly hydrophilic, meaning it aggressively attracts water. 2. **Cross-linking** binds the starch molecules together in a 3D web. This prevents the starch from simply dissolving into a sticky gel when it hits water.

The result is a powder that, when exposed to the fluids in your stomach, acts like a microscopic sponge on steroids. It rapidly absorbs water and swells to 7 to 12 times its original size in a matter of seconds.

## The Physics of Superdisintegrants: How It Works Imagine a tightly packed brick of dry sand. If you pour water on it, the water might just pool on top or slowly seep in. Now imagine that mixed into that sand are thousands of tiny balloons that instantly inflate the moment they touch water. The inflating balloons would violently push the sand apart, shattering the brick into millions of individual grains.

This is exactly how Explotab™ works inside a supplement tablet. When you swallow a tablet containing Explotab™, the water in your stomach wicks into the pill. The Explotab™ particles instantly hydrate and undergo massive volumetric expansion. This internal swelling generates so much outward force that it overcomes the mechanical strength of the tablet, causing it to literally explode from the inside out.

By shattering the tablet into fine particles, Explotab™ exponentially increases the surface area of the active ingredients. According to the laws of physical chemistry (specifically the Noyes-Whitney equation), greater surface area equals faster dissolution. And in the human body, faster dissolution equals faster and more complete absorption into the bloodstream.

## Explotab vs. Other Disintegrants Not all disintegrants are created equal. Older, cheaper supplements might use standard corn starch or microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) to help tablets break apart. However, clinical studies have shown that these traditional excipients are vastly inferior to modern superdisintegrants.

In a 2012 study published in the assessment of disintegrants, researchers compared sodium starch glycolate (Explotab) against croscarmellose sodium, crospovidone, and MCC. The study found that MCC relies on a 'wicking' mechanism—it pulls water in, but doesn't swell much. Crospovidone also relies on wicking and shape recovery. Sodium starch glycolate, however, was identified as the material with the largest swelling capacity. For tablets packed with hydrophobic (water-repelling) ingredients—like many herbal sports supplements—the sheer mechanical force of Explotab's swelling is often the only way to guarantee the tablet breaks apart.

## Why Supplement Companies Use Proprietary Delivery Blends You will often see Explotab™ listed on the labels of advanced sports nutrition brands, such as Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals, sometimes bundled into a 'Proprietary Blend with Explotab and Extend-Rx Technology.'

Why list an inactive excipient in a proprietary blend? 1. **Marketing:** It highlights that the company is using expensive, pharmaceutical-grade delivery systems rather than cheap manufacturing techniques. 2. **Biphasic Release:** By combining Explotab (which causes immediate, explosive rapid release) with Extend-Rx (which causes slow, sustained release), formulators can create a product that hits you quickly but lasts for hours. This is highly desirable in products like pre-workouts, fat burners, or pain management supplements (like Pain-Rx).

## Safety, Tolerability, and Excipient Status Sodium starch glycolate is universally recognized as safe. It is an FDA-approved excipient used in thousands of over-the-counter and prescription medications worldwide. Because it is an inactive polymer, it is not absorbed into the bloodstream; it simply does its mechanical job in the stomach and passes harmlessly through the digestive tract.

While it is derived from potato starch, the rigorous chemical processing and purification mean it is generally safe even for those with mild food sensitivities, and it is entirely gluten-free.

## Conclusion While it may not be the ingredient that builds muscle or burns fat, Explotab™ Technology is the unsung hero of high-quality supplement formulations. By ensuring that tightly compressed tablets disintegrate rapidly and completely, Explotab™ guarantees that you are actually absorbing the active ingredients you paid for, leading to faster onset times and better overall clinical outcomes.