Aluminum is a commonly used metal. Aluminum materials do not rust, their oxide is non-toxic, they have good light-shielding properties, excellent moisture and gas barrier properties, good processability, no rebound, high thermal conductivity, and excellent ductility and airtightness, providing sufficient protection for drugs. Aluminum materials, as pharmaceutical packaging, are effective, safe, stable (physically, chemically, and microbiologically), uniform, airtight, and non-polluting. The inner spray-coated aluminum packaging does not react with the packaged drug, does not adsorb the drug, and does not change the drug's properties. In addition, aluminum packaging also has certain strength, heat and cold resistance, light weight, light-shielding, easy cleaning, and easy sterilization and disinfection. Therefore, aluminum tubes are used for the packaging of medicinal ointments, creams, and gels, and are a very attractive container. They are easy to control the dosage, have good repeated sealing characteristics, and provide sufficient protection for the product. The risk of contamination of the ointment inside the inner spray-coated aluminum tube is also minimal. Aluminum tubes are also easy to use, store, transport, are environmentally friendly, durable, aesthetically pleasing, and easy to identify. In addition, they have simple manufacturing processes and are not easily broken, making them very suitable for modern high-speed automated filling operations. The packaging form of aluminum tubes can adapt to various harsh circulation conditions, including climate, transportation methods, circulation objects, and circulation cycles. It can fully adapt to various extreme temperatures, humidity, and temperature differences in the circulation area, and has sufficient vibration resistance and drop resistance. The U.S. FDA has stipulated that the packaging of drugs must maintain the uniformity, efficacy, quality, and purity of the drug within the specified shelf life. Using high-quality aluminum tubes produced by Wuhan Xiuyuan Technology Co., Ltd., experiments lasting 18 months and ongoing have proven that they fully meet the above requirements.
Aluminum tube plastic is a synthetic polymer with light weight, impact resistance, toughness, and is not easily broken. However, plastics are poor in terms of air permeability, moisture permeability, heat resistance, chemical stability, and physical stability. In addition, the composition of plastics contains some additives such as stabilizers, plasticizers, antioxidants, lubricants, and fillers. These additives may migrate into the drug solution, and the drug in the solution can also be adsorbed by the plastic, thus affecting the stability of the preparation and the effectiveness of the drug. Therefore, plastic containers should not be used for long periods of time, especially for chemically unstable drugs. If necessary, physical, chemical, and biological toxicity tests should be conducted before using plastic containers to ensure safe use. Compared with plastic tubes, aluminum tubes have the outstanding advantage of no back-suction phenomenon. This avoids back-suction of air causing the paste to contact the air and deteriorate, thus affecting the quality and efficacy of the paste. Its barrier properties and light-shielding properties are also significantly better than plastic tubes. And the inner spray-coated aluminum tubes have less impact on the stability and effectiveness of the packaged drugs compared to plastic tubes.

Compared with composite tubes, aluminum tubes have the outstanding advantage of excellent airtightness. Because aluminum is dense, and the aluminum tube is a single material formed by a single extrusion, there is no possibility of leakage at the welded joints of different materials in composite tubes. On the other hand, the manufacturing process of composite tubes is complex, with longitudinal welds in the tube body, and injection molding of the tube body and tube shoulder made of two different materials. Due to the instability of the process, it is difficult to reliably ensure the airtightness of each individual product in mass production. Moreover, composite tubes also have a "rebound" phenomenon, leading to a large amount of unpurified air from the outside entering the tube and directly contacting the drug, inevitably causing the possibility of secondary contamination that the drug should avoid. In addition, composite tubes cannot be sterilized at high temperatures of nearly 500℃ during production. In particular, their recycling and reuse still present considerable difficulties. Discarded into nature, they are difficult to degrade, which does not meet the requirements of green environmental protection. This is a fatal drawback that restricts its further development.
Therefore, the "15th Five-Year Plan" development outline of the pharmaceutical packaging industry clearly stipulates that "ointment packaging should completely eliminate lead-tin tubes and low-quality plastic tubes and develop aluminum tubes with inner spray coating." For human society to survive, it must quickly change the traditional production methods that consume and waste a large amount of natural resources while damaging the environment. With the increasingly loud calls for green environmental protection, the recycling of packaging materials is becoming increasingly important and will attract more attention. Aluminum has a great advantage in that it is very easy to recycle, and the energy consumption required to produce recycled aluminum ingots from remelting waste aluminum is only 5% of that required to convert alumina into virgin aluminum ingots.

Packaging is an indispensable component of drugs. Only by selecting appropriate packaging materials and methods can the quality of drugs and the safety of medication for the general public be truly effectively guaranteed. Drug inner packaging refers to the packaging materials and containers that directly contact drugs used by pharmaceutical manufacturers and medical institutions for the preparation of preparations. The inner packaging should ensure the quality of the drug during production, transportation, storage, and use, and be convenient for clinical use.
In summary, aluminum tubes have unique advantages and strong vitality. They are the mainstream choice for medicinal ointment packaging in the future and meet the requirements of IS014000: improving the environment and protecting the environment to promote sustainable economic development.