Palash Sanphui

New polymorphs of curcumin

Two new crystalline polymorphs and an amorphous phase of the active curcuminoid ingredient in turmeric are reported. Curcumin polymorph 2 has higher dissolution rate and better solubility than the known polymorph 1.

Salt and Cocrystals of Sildenafil with Dicarboxylic Acids: Solubility and Pharmacokinetic Advantage of the Glutarate Salt

Sildenafil is a drug used to treat erectile dysfunction and pulmonary arterial hypertension. Because of poor aqueous solubility of the drug, the citrate salt, with improved solubility and pharmacokinetics, has been marketed. However, the citrate salt requires an hour to reach its peak plasma concentration. Thus, to improve solubility and bioavailability characteristics, cocrystals and salts of the drug have been prepared by treating aliphatic dicarboxylic acids with sildenafil; the N-methylated piperazine of the drug molecule interacts with the carboxyl group of the acid to form a heterosynthon. Salts are formed with oxalic and fumaric acid; salt monoanions are formed with succinic and glutaric acid. Sildenafil forms cocrystals with longer chain dicarboxylic acids such as adipic, pimelic, suberic, and sebacic acids. Auxiliary stabilization via C-H···O interactions is also present in these cocrystals and salts. Solubility experiments of sildenafil cocrystal/salts were carried out in 0.1N HCl aqueous medium and compared with the solubility of the citrate salt. The glutarate salt and pimelic acid cocrystal dissolve faster than the citrate salt in a two hour dissolution experiment. The glutarate salt exhibits improved solubility (3.2-fold) compared to the citrate salt in water. Solubilities of the binary salts follow an inverse correlation with their melting points, while the solubilities of the cocrystals follow solubilities of the coformer. Pharmacokinetic studies on rats showed that the glutarate salt exhibits doubled plasma AUC values in a single dose within an hour compared to the citrate salt. The high solubility of glutaric acid, in part originating from the strained conformation of the molecule and its high permeability, may be the reason for higher plasma levels of the drug.

Crystal engineering of stable temozolomide cocrystals.

The antitumor prodrug temozolomide (TMZ) decomposes in aqueous medium of pH≥7 but is relatively stable under acidic conditions. Pure TMZ is obtained as a white powder but turns pink and then brown, which is indicative of chemical degradation. Pharmaceutical cocrystals of TMZ were engineered with safe coformers such as oxalic acid, succinic acid, salicylic acid, d,l-malic acid, and d,l-tartaric acid, to stabilize the drug as a cocrystal. All cocrystals were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), single crystal X-ray diffraction, and FT-IR as well as FT-Raman spectroscopy. Temozolomide cocrystals with organic acids (pK(a) 2-6) were found to be more stable than the reference drug under physiological conditions. The half-life (T(1/2)) of TMZ-oxalic and TMZ-salicylic acid measured by UV/Vis spectroscopy in pH 7 buffer is two times longer than that of TMZ (3.5 h and 3.6 h vs. 1.7 h); TMZ-succinic acid, TMZ-tartaric acid, and TMZ-malic acid also exhibited a longer half-life (2.3, 2.5, and 2.8 h, respectively). Stability studies at 40 °C and 75 % relative humidity (ICH conditions) showed that hydrolytic degradation of temozolomide in the solid state started after one week, as determined by PXRD, whereas its cocrystals with succinic acid and oxalic acid were intact at 28 weeks, thus confirming the greater stability of cocrystals compared to the reference drug. The intrinsic dissolution rate (IDR) profile of TMZ-oxalic acid and TMZ-succinic acid cocrystals in buffer of pH 7 is comparable to that of temozolomide. Among the temozolomide cocrystals examined, those with succinic acid and oxalic acid exhibited both an improved stability and a comparable dissolution rate to the reference drug.

Cocrystals of Hydrochlorothiazide: Solubility and Diffusion/Permeability Enhancements through Drug–Coformer Interactions

Hydrochlorothiazide (HCT) is a diuretic and a BCS class IV drug with low solubility and low permeability, exhibiting poor oral absorption. The present study attempts to improve the physicochemical properties of the drug using a crystal engineering approach with cocrystals. Such multicomponent crystals of HCT with nicotinic acid (NIC), nicotinamide (NCT), 4-aminobenzoic acid (PABA), succinamide (SAM), and resorcinol (RES) were prepared using liquid-assisted grinding, and their solubilities in pH 7.4 buffer were evaluated. Diffusion and membrane permeability were studied using a Franz diffusion cell. Except for the SAM and NIC cocrystals, all other binary systems exhibited improved solubility. All of the cocrystals showed improved diffusion/membrane permeability compared to that of HCT with the exception of the SAM cocrystal. When the solubility was high, as in the case of PABA, NCT, and RES cocrystals, the flux/permeability dropped slightly. This is in agreement with the expected interplay between solubility and permeability. Improved solubility/permeability is attributed to new drug-coformer interactions. Cocrystals of SAM, however, showed poor solubility and flux. This cocrystal contains a primary sulfonamide dimer synthon similar to that of HCT polymorphs, which may be a reason for its unusual behavior. Hirshfeld surface analysis was carried out in all cases to determine whether a correlation exists between cocrystal permeability and drug-coformer interactions.

Tuning mechanical properties of pharmaceutical crystals with multicomponent crystals: voriconazole as a case study.

Crystals of voriconazole, an antifungal drug, are soft in nature, and this is disadvantageous during compaction studies where pressure is applied on the solid. Crystal engineering is used to make cocrystals and salts with modified mechanical properties (e.g., hardness). Cocrystals with biologically safe coformers such as fumaric acid, 4-hydroxybenzoic acid, and 4-aminobenzoic acid and salts with hydrochloric acid and oxalic acid are prepared through solvent assisted grinding. The presence (salt) or absence (cocrystal) of proton transfer in these multicomponent crystals is unambiguously confirmed with single crystal X-ray diffraction. All the cocrystals have 1:1 stoichiometry, whereas salts exhibit variable stoichiometries such as HCl salt (1:2) and oxalate salts (1:1.5 and 1:1). The nanoindentation technique was applied on single crystals of the salts and cocrystals. The salts exhibit better hardness than the drug and cocrystals in the order salts ≫ drug > cocrystals. The molecular origin of this mechanical modulation is explained on the basis of slip planes in the crystal structure and relative orientations of the molecules with respect to the nanoindentation direction. The hydrochloride salt is the hardest solid in this family. This may be useful for tableting of the drug during formulation and in drug development.

Fast dissolving eutectic compositions of curcumin.

The bioactive herbal ingredient curcumin was screened with pharmaceutically acceptable coformers to discover solid-state forms of high solubility. Mechano-chemical grinding of curcumin with cocrystal formers in a fixed stoichiometry ratio resulted in binary eutectic compositions of curcumin-coformer with nicotinamide (1:2), ferulic acid (1:1), hydroquinone (1:1), p-hydroxybenzoic acid (1:1), and l-tartaric acid (1:1). The eutectic nature of the product crystalline solids was established by differential scanning calorimetry, and the absence of hydrogen-bonded crystalline phases such as cocrystals/salts was ascertained by powder X-ray diffraction, IR-Raman, and solid-state NMR spectroscopy. The best case of CUR-NAM eutectic exhibits 10-fold faster IDR and 6-times higher AUC compared to crystalline curcumin.

Acemetacin polymorphs: a rare case of carboxylic acid catemer and dimer synthons

Acemetacin is the first example of an API polymorph with a carboxylic acid catemer and dimer O–H⋯O synthons. The auxiliary stabilization to the catemer motif from stronger C–H⋯O and C–Cl⋯O interactions compared to those in the dimer structure is discussed for a polymorph pair. The crystal structure of the stable dimer polymorph was solved by structure determination from powder X-ray diffraction data (SDPD).

Acemetacin cocrystals and salts: structure solution from powder X-ray data and form selection of the piperazine salt

Multi-component crystals of the anti-inflammatory drug acemetacin were prepared by melt crystallization and their X-ray crystal structures solved using single-crystal and high-resolution powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) data. The acemetacin–para-aminobenzoic acid adduct and the acemetacin piperazine salt are stable to hydration in the aqueous medium (up to 24 h).

Temozolomide hydrochloride dihydrate

The X-ray crystal structure of temozolomide hydrochloride shows that the dihydrate salt contains one neutral temozolomide, one temozolomide-H+Cl−, one H3O+·Cl−, and three water molecules. This is the first crystallographic evidence of a protonated form of the antitumour drug temozolomide. The protonation of water O and imidazole N of the drug are rationalized by calculated pKas.

Salts and Co-crystals of Theobromine and their phase transformations in water

AbstractTheobromine, a xanthine derivative analogous to caffeine and theophylline, is an effective central nervous system stimulant. It has lower aqueous solubility than caffeine and theophylline. Salts of theobromine with hydrochloric acid, phosphoric acid, methanesulfonic acid, benzenesulfonic acid and p-toluenesulfonic acid were prepared using liquid-assisted grinding (LAG). Proton transfer from the strong acid to the weak base imidazole N resulted in N+–H ⋯O− hydrogen-bonded supramolecular assemblies of theobromine salts. The mesylate salt is polymorphic with amide N–H ⋯O dimer and catemer synthons for the theobromine cations. A variable stoichiometry for phosphate salts (1:3 and 1:2.5) were observed with the latter being more stable. All new salts were characterized by FT-IR, PXRD, DSC and finally single crystal X-ray diffraction. In terms of stability, these salts transformed to theobromine within 1 h of dissolution in water. Remarkably, the besylate and tosylate salts are 88 and 58 times more soluble than theobromine, but they dissociated within 1 h. In contrast, theobromine co-crystals with gallic acid, anthranilic acid and 5-chlorosalicylic acid were found to be stable for more than 24 h in the aqueous slurry conditions, except malonic co-crystal which transformed to theobromine within 1 h. Water mediated phase transformation of theobromine salts and co-crystal may be due to the incongruency (high solubility difference) between the components. These results suggest that even though traditional salts are highly soluble compared to co-crystals, co-crystals can be superior in terms of stability. Graphical AbstractMesylate salt polymorphs of theobromine containing amide dimer and catemer synthons of TBRH+ represent a rare category of synthon polymorphs for salts. TBR salts are shown to be more soluble than the corresponding cocrystals, but in terms of stability the salts dissociated within 1 h in aqueous medium.