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We report novel pharmaceutical salts of an anti-hypertensive drug carvedilol (CVD) with pharmaceutically acceptable salt formers, including oxalic acid (OXA), fumaric acid (FUMA), benzoic acid (BZA), and mandelic acid (MDA) via conventional solvent evaporation technique. The pKa difference between CVD and selected acids was greater than 3, thus suggesting salt formation. Two polymorphic forms of CVD/MDA salts and one p-Dioxane solvate of CVD/FUMA salt were also reported in this paper. The salts were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Stability of the salts was assessed by storage at 40°C/75% RH for 1 month. All CVD salts exhibited higher solubility in phosphate buffer solution pH 6.8 compared to the parent drug CVD and showed good stability in accelerated ICH conditions at 40°C/75% RH for 1 month. CVD/FUMA salt showed the highest solubility (1.78 times). Based on thermal analysis and slurry experiment, it was found that CVD/MDA polymorphs were related monotropically with Form 1 as the stable form. The results suggested that salt formation could be an alternative method to improve CVD solubility.

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Objective: Pharmaceutical cocrystal is a promising method to improve the solubility of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). Itraconazole (ITZ) is a BCS class II antifungal drug with poor aqueous solubility, therefore an attempt was made to improve the solubility of ITZ using cocrystallization technique. In this work, six novel pharmaceutical cocrystals of ITZ with various coformers, including 4-hydroxybenzoic acid (4HBA), trans-cinnamic acid (TCA), suberic acid (SUB), sebacic acid (SBC), 1-hydroxy-2-naphthoic acid (1H2N), and benzamide (BZD) were prepared.Methods: ITZ cocrystals was prepared by solvent evaporation process. The cocrystals produced were characterized using powder x-ray diffraction (PXRD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Solubility analysis was performed to evaluate the cocrystals.Results: PXRD and DSC analysis revealed that the pattern of all ITZ cocrystals was distinguishable from the individual compounds which indicates the formation of new phase. The solubility of ITZ and its cocrystals from highest to lowest after 24 h in 0.1 N HCl solution (pH 1.2) follows the order ITZ-TCA (1.97-fold), ITZ-SBC (1.09-fold), ITZ, ITZ-1H2N (0.58-fold) and ITZ-4HBA (0.46-fold).Conclusion: This study demonstrates that the selection of coformers has pronounced an impact on the physicochemical properties of ITZ. Based on this study, it can be concluded that cocrystallization offers a valuable way to improve the solubility of ITZ.

Objective: Optimum condition for the extraction of citronella oil from citronella (Cymbopogon winterianus) using supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO2) was investigated.Methods: In order to determine the optimum extraction condition, a Taguchi experiment with L9 orthogonal array design was used. Effects of pressure, temperature and dynamic extraction time on citronella oil yield were investigated at levels ranging between 10-15 MPa, 35-45 °C and 60-180 min, respectively.Results: The highest citronella oil yield (3.206%) was achieved at a factor combination of 15 MPa, 50 °C and 180 min. The obtained citronella oil yield from SC-CO2 extraction was higher than that of percolation as the solvent extraction method using ethanol, which gave a citronella oil yield of 1.4%. The experimental oil yield at optimum condition was in accordance to the values predicted by a computational process using Taguchi method. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) with 95% confidence interval indicates that extraction temperature is the most significant factor in maximizing citronella oil yield, followed by dynamic extraction time and pressure.Conclusion: Optimization process for oil yield from SC-CO2extraction of citronella (Cymbopogon winterianus) was successfully performed using Taguchi L9 orthogonal array design. This study demonstrates that Taguchi method was able to simplify the experimental procedure of SC-CO2 process.