Fusion as an Approach to Enhance Dissolution Rate of a Poorly Water-Soluble Drug (Curcurmin)

Abstract

It’s well known that curcumin is practically insoluble in water. Therefore, to improve the drug dissolution rate, fusion approach was employed to prepare curcumin solid dispersions (SDs) in the carrier Pluronic F68 with three different drug loads. The dissolution rate of curcumin from the SDs was measured at simulated gastric fluid. The concentration of the dissolved drug in the medium was determined by HPLC. The dissolution rates of the formulations were dependent on the drug loading in SDs. 92.2% CUR was dissolved in 10 min from the SDs with 8.97% drug load, whereas the amounts of drug released were 65.8% and 84.2% within 120 min from the SDs with 18.9% and 29.0% drug loads, respectively. The Fourier transform infrared spectra indicated hydrogen bond between the drug and carrier. Furthermore, their physicochemical properties were well investigated using differential scanning calorimetry and X-ray diffraction. In the dispersions containing 8.97% CUR, the drug was in the molecular state. At a composition of approximately 18.9%, CUR was dispersed as micro-fine crystals. These interesting results indicate that the physical states of the drug in the carrier, which are governed by the drug loading, can affect the dissolution rate improvement.