Excipient (pharmacologically inactive substance)

What is it?

Mint is a natural or artificial flavor commonly used in medicine, chewing gum and toothpaste. Peppermint and spearmint are common examples. A flavor, as used in the pharmaceutical industry for inactive ingredients, refers to natural or artificial tastes, which may include fragrances and colors of the flavoring. Flavors are used for orally consumed products such as syrups, chewable tablets, suspensions, or gums that impart beneficial therapeutic effect, as well.

The U.S. Code of Federal Regulations describes a natural flavorant as: the essential oil, oleoresin, essence or extractive, protein hydrolysate, distillate, or any product of roasting, heating or enzymolysis, which contains the flavoring constituents derived from a spice, fruit or fruit juice, vegetable or vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or similar plant material, meat, seafood, poultry, eggs, dairy products, or fermentation products thereof, whose significant function in food is flavoring rather than nutritional.

Artificial flavors include any substance, the function of which is to impart flavor, which is not derived from a spice, fruit or fruit juice, vegetable or vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or similar plant material, meat, fish, poultry, eggs, dairy products, or fermentation products thereof.^[1]