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Valeriana officinalis L. (Valerianaceae) is one of the most widely used plants for the treatment of anxiety and insomnia. Usually dry plant extracts, including V. officinalis, are hygroscopic materials with poor physico-mechanical properties that can be directly compressed.A V. officinalis dry extract with moderate hygroscocity is suitable for direct compression, and was obtained by using a simple and economical technique. The V. officinalis fluid extract was oven-dried with colloidal silicon dioxide as a drying adjuvant. The addition of colloidal silicon dioxide resulted in a dry plant extract with good physico-mechanical properties for direct compression and lower hygroscopicity than the dry extract without the carrier. The dry plant extract glass transition temperature was considerably above room temperature (about 72 °C). The colloidal silicon dioxide also produced an antiplasticizing effect, improving the powder’s physical stability.The pharmaceutical performance of the prepared V. officinalis dry extract was studied through the design of tablets. The manufactured tablets showed good compactability, friability, hardness, and disintegration time. Those containing a disintegrant (Avicel PH 101) exhibited the best pharmaceutical performance, having the lowest disintegration time of around 40 seconds.

Albendazole (ABZ, anti-parasitic active pharmaceutical ingredient) is a crystalline low water-soluble drug, thus the dissolution rate in gastrointestinal fluids is limited. Consequently, the improvement of the water solubility and dissolution rate of ABZ implies a great challenge for a more efficient treatment of hydatidosis. In this context, SBA-15 and SBA-16 ordered mesoporous silica materials were synthetized and loaded with ABZ. X-ray diffraction, FT-IR spectroscopy, nitrogen physisorption manometry, particle size distribution and scanning electronic microscopy were used to characterize unloaded and loaded materials (ABZ/SBA-15 and ABZ/SBA-16). The loaded ABZ amount in the carriers was estimated by elemental analysis. For the loaded materials, the drug solubility and release profile were evaluated. In addition, mathematical models were compared to explain the dissolution kinetics of ABZ from mesoporous solids. ABZ was successfully loaded into the mesopores. The amorphous state of the adsorbed ABZ was confirmed by differential scanning calorimetry that resulted in a notable increment in the dissolution rate compared to crystalline ABZ. Drug release behaviors were well simulated by the Weibull model for ABZ/SBA-15 and by the Gompertz function for pure ABZ and ABZ/SBA-16. The SBA-15 carrier exhibited the highest drug loading and dissolution rate becoming a promising material to improve ABZ bioavailability.

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