Continuous liquid antisolvent participation of curcumin: poluiomarphic Behavio, morphology and calculations of nucleation rates and solid-liquid interfecial energies

Abstract

Almost 40% of the newly developed drugs have poor bioavailability and therefore formulation of these drugs is a current challenge in pharmaceutical industries. Curcumin, one such drug extracted from rhizome curcuma longa (turmeric roots) has large applications in health care because it is an antioxidant and has antiinflammatory, antiseptic, anti-cancer, anti-tumor and antimicrobial properties.However poor aqueous solubility and dissolution properties have restricted its therapeutic use. To enhance the bio-availability of curcumin, in this work we report continuous production of aqueous curcumin suspensions through liquid antisolvent precipitation (LASP) process. Influence of ultrasound, additives and solvent to antisolvent ratio on polymorphic outcome, morphology has been studied. Calculated data for nucleation rates, mixing time and solid-liquid interfacial energies have als been reported.