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Apart from the active ingredients most pills are made up of a basic (alkalynic) material such as chalk or some form of Xcarbonate (X = magnesium/calcium etc.) When the pill hits the highly acidic environemnt of the stomach (ph=2) then react with the acid and dissolve. Some pills have an enteric coating that is highly resistant to the stomachs acid (hydrochloric acid) and so pass undisolved into the small intestines where enzymes then eat the coating and the pill disolves there instead. This is important because lots of medicines would be destroyed by the acid in the stomach and so would never get to the tissues that need it.

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16y ago

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