The use of drug powders containing micronized drug particles has been increasing in several pharmaceutical dosage forms to overcome the dissolution and bioavailability problems. Most of the newly developed drugs are poorly water soluble which limits dissolution rate and bioavailability. The dissolution rate can be enhanced by micronization of the drug particles. The properties of the micronized drug substance such as particle size, size distribution, shape, surface properties, and agglomeration behaviour and powder flow are affected by the type of micronization technique used. Mechanical communition, spray drying and supercritical fluid (SCF) technology are the most commonly employed techniques for production of micronized drug particles but the characteristics of the resulting drug product cannot be controlled using these techniques. Hence, a newer technique called in situ micronization is developed in order to overcome the limitations associated with the other techniques. This review summarizes the existing knowledge on in situ micronization techniques. The properties of the resulting drug substance obtained by in situ micronization were also compared.

With the advent of 21st century, researchers worldwide have extensively reviewed herbs and botanicals for their marked clinical efficacy. It has been estimated that most of the newly discovered compounds offer poor bioavailability due to their low aqueous solubility. Phospholipid complexation of the drug often helps to improve its water solubility and enhance the bioavailability. This study includes optimization of resveratrol-phospholipid complexes using a 3-factor, 3-level box-behnken design (15 batches). Three independent variables i.e. phospholipid-resveratrol ratio, refluxing temperature and reflux time were optimized for two dependent variables, i.e. yield and entrapment efficiency (EE). Complexes were prepared by refluxing stoichiometric ratio of Phospholipon 90G and resveratrol in dichloromethane and retrieved by precipitation with n-hexane. Complexation was confirmed by Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FTIR) spectroscopy. The data was suitably used to explore quadratic response surfaces and construct second order polynomial models with Design Expert®. Formulation with highest desirability (D=0.994) was selected as optimum and prepared using 1.5:1 Phospholipon 90G-resveratrol ratio (X1) at 59.4°C temperature (X2) and 4 h time (X3) to give maximum yield and entrapment efficiency. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was also found to be significant for both the responses. Complexes were optimised for good yield and EE. The partition coefficient was lowered to 2.25 hypothesizing good passive absorption.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/icpj.v3i7.19079 International Current Pharmaceutical Journal, June 2014, 3(7): 301-308

Full factorial design and in vitro taste assessment approach, coupled together, was successfully applied to develop and optimize batches of ONS incorporated taste-masked microspheres.

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The experimental results reveal the successful intercalation of ONS into the space available between the layers of Veegum. Furthermore, this resulted in a control on drug release in salivary pH resulting in a concentration lower than bitterness threshold.