PROD231-25S1 (C) Semester One 2025

Product Formulation 1

15 points

Details:
Start Date: Monday, 17 February 2025
End Date: Sunday, 22 June 2025
Withdrawal Dates
Last Day to withdraw from this course:
  • Without financial penalty (full fee refund): Sunday, 2 March 2025
  • Without academic penalty (including no fee refund): Sunday, 11 May 2025

Description

Properties of solid and liquid formulations, including particle size and shape, granulation, agglomeration, tableting, solubility, viscosity, colloids and suspensions. Common components of formulations for chemical, biological, pharmaceutical, personal and healthcare products and their functionalities.

The goal of the course is to deliver knowledge and practical skills relevant to formulation science. It enables students to have a broader understanding of properties of certain formulations, their mechanisms of action in biological and non-biological systems, delivery methods, ingredients, quality related issues and important processes involved in the development of formulated products including an initial understanding of the regulatory framework. The knowledge obtained from the course can be applied into a wide range of industries including over-the-counter type healthcare, food, agricultural, household care chemical formulations although many examples are focused on cosmetics and personal care industry. The course also equips students with a unique blend of technical, design and business aspects related to the topic with the integration of lectures and workshops on concept development and marketing strategies used in formulated products. Another goal is to facilitate the teamwork and problem solving skills through various classroom and laboratory activities. The valuable collaborations with external contacts will allow students to have early connections with experts in the field.

Learning Outcomes

  • By the end of the course, students will be able to:
  • Understand a product brief, select suitable ingredients and know the steps involved in the formulation of different dosage forms including solutions, lotions, creams, pastes, gels, solids etc.
  • Describe the properties and characters of main ingredients used in various types of formulations. Identify quality issues, suitable dispensing, evaluation and regulatory aspects related to different types of formulated products.
  • Recognise the biological or non-biological systems different formulations are intended to act on and the mechanisms of action of certain type of formulations.
  • Independently lead to the development of testing methods for formulations analysing how desired properties of formulations are achieved with modifications.
  • Modify formulations based on test results
  • Consider how Māori and other indigenous groups may view the storage, use and blending of materials and alteration of physical properties of formulated products.
  • Identify current global trends of formulated products, current marketing strategies of selected product types.

Prerequisites

Timetable 2025

Students must attend one activity from each section.

Lecture A
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Wednesday 14:00 - 15:00 Rehua 530
17 Feb - 6 Apr
28 Apr - 1 Jun
Lecture B
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Wednesday 15:00 - 16:00 Rehua 530
17 Feb - 6 Apr
28 Apr - 1 Jun
Lecture C
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Friday 11:00 - 12:00 Jack Erskine 242
17 Feb - 6 Apr
28 Apr - 1 Jun
Lab A
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Friday 12:00 - 15:00 West 230 Formulation Lab
17 Feb - 6 Apr
28 Apr - 1 Jun

Course Coordinator / Lecturer

Pram Lakmi Abhayawardhana

Course Administrator

Alison Lowery

Lab Technician

Khoa Tran

Assessment

The use of Artificial Intelligence bot tools such as ChatGPT is not permitted in this course. Use of these to assist with the generation of any part of your assessments in this course constitutes a breach of instructions and may result in an Academic Misconduct referral. Your work should be your own original undertaking, or in the case of group work the original undertaking of your group. Information or work generated or recreated from external or secondary sources or means must be clearly identified and references provided.

Laboratories: Weeks 3,5, 8,10, one week post experiment - 25%
Test 1: Week 6 - 25%
Assignment: Due week 6 exam period - 15%
Test 2: Week 12 - 30%
Various activities for online or face to face engagement: 5%
Total: 100%

Textbooks / Resources

Recommended Reading

Baki, Gabriella , Alexander, Kenneth S; Introduction to cosmetic formulation and technology ; John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2015.

Barel, A. O. , Paye, Marc, Maibach, Howard I; Handbook of cosmetic science and technology ; Fourth edition; CRC Press, 2014.

Sakamoto, Kazutami et al; Cosmetic science and technology : theoretical principles and applications ; Elsevier, 2017.

Tadros, Tharwat F; Formulation Science and Technology Vol. 3: Pharmaceutical, Cosmetic and Personal Care Formulations ; De Gruyter, Inc., 2018.

Notes

The prerequisite for this course is CHEM111 RP:BIOL111

Details for lecture and lab times can be found on ‘My timetable’ (https://mytimetable.canterbury.ac.nz).  Any changes to the scheduled times will be communicated by email and/or on LEARN

Indicative Fees

Domestic fee $1,122.00

International fee $6,238.00

* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.

For further information see School of Product Design .

All PROD231 Occurrences

  • PROD231-25S1 (C) Semester One 2025