PHYSIOCHEMICAL CHARACTERIZATIONS OF ARTEMISININPOLYETHYLENE GLYCOLS (1400, 4000 & 6000) SOLID DISPERSIONS

Artemisinin (ART) is an oral antimalarial agent with poor aqueous solubility and low oral bioavailability. The present study describes the preparation of artemisinin with polyethylene glycol (PEGs 1500, 4000 and 6000) as a solid dispersion to increase the solubility of artemisinin. Solid dispersion of the drug were prepared with PEGs (1500, 4000 and 6000) at these ratios (1: 10 to 8: 10) using melt (fusion) method. The prepared solid dispersions were physiochemically characterized and compared to pure ART. Solubility determination, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) were used to investigate the physicochemical characteristics of the preparation. The solubility of artemisinin from these preparations increased linearly with increasing the ratio of PEGs to drug. However, the increase in ART solubility was not significant. The data obtained from SEM and DSC studies revealed that the preparations were not capable of increasing the solubility of artemisinin significantly through increasing the percentage of PEGs. These preparations did not result in pure amorphous form but it led to reduce crystallinity of artemisinin.