7. Pharmacy staff added 35 mL of distilled water to a 100 mL bottle of amoxicillin powder for oral suspension. The resulting reconstituted suspension is thick and lumpy. This is most likely a result of adding:
Answer: C
The resulting reconstituted suspension is thick and lumpy due to too little diluent being added.
Adding only 35 mL of distilled water to a 100 mL bottle of amoxicillin powder likely resulted in an insufficient amount of liquid to properly dissolve the powder, leading to a thick and lumpy suspension.
A) too much diluent
Choosing too much diluent would typically result in a thinner suspension, as the excess liquid would help dissolve the powder more effectively. Thus, this option is incorrect.
B) an incorrect diluent
Using an incorrect diluent would imply that a substance other than the recommended water was used, which could cause solubility issues. However, as distilled water is appropriate for reconstitution, this option is not the cause of the observed thick and lumpy suspension.
C) too little diluent
Adding too little diluent, in this case, 35 mL instead of the required volume, would prevent the amoxicillin powder from fully dissolving, leading to the thick and lumpy consistency noted in the suspension. This is the most plausible explanation for the issue.
D) the correct diluent
While distilled water is indeed the correct diluent for reconstituting amoxicillin, the amount added was insufficient. Therefore, this option does not address the fundamental problem of the suspension's texture.
Conclusion
The thick and lumpy texture of the amoxicillin suspension is primarily due to the addition of too little diluent, which prevented proper dissolution of the powder. All other options either incorrectly identify the issue or misinterpret the role of the diluent in this scenario. Thus, option C is definitively the correct choice.