A small pouch containing silica gel is often found in bottles of medicine in tablet or powder form because silica gel

Silica gel is used in medicine bottles because it functions as a desiccant — a porous form of silicon dioxide that removes water vapor from the container and thereby “makes the air dry” around the tablets or powders [1]. By physically adsorbing moisture it reduces relative humidity inside the package, slowing hydrolytic degradation, tablet disintegration, mold growth and other moisture‑promoted deterioration that can lower drug potency and shelf life. Pharmaceutical guidance and product literature explicitly recommend silica gel sachets or inserts in primary packaging to maintain low‑moisture environments for moisture‑sensitive drugs, rather than to kill microbes or absorb other gases.

Sources

1. [1] Science-Class VII . NCERT(Revised ed 2025) > Chapter 4: The World of Metals and Non-metals > Activity 4.5: Let us experiment > p. 49