Solubility of curcumin in subcritical water: Experimental data, modeling, and thermodynamic parameters

Abstract

As an anticancer drug, the mole fraction solubility of curcumin in subcritical water (SBCW) was determined by a static method. Experiments were performed at temperatures between 298.15–423.15 K and a constant pressure of 20 bar. With increasing temperature, the mole fraction of solubility showed a significant increase in the range of 0.03 × 10-6< x 2< 13.22 × 10-6. For the correlation of experimental solubility data, linear, modified Apelblat, NRTL, UNIQUAC, and Wilson thermodynamic models were selected. Among the models, NRTL and modified Apelblat models had a better correlation with the experimental data with MPD% 6.94, 4.68, and RMSD×105 0.07, 0.04, respectively. Also, the thermodynamic functions such as Gibbs free energy, enthalpy, and entropy were calculated for the solubility process of curcumin in SBCW.