A co-crystallization
of three drug molecules, niacin (3-pyridine-carboxylic
acid = NIA), allopurinol (pyrazolo(3,4-d)pyrimidin-4-one
= ALP), and amiloride (3,5-diamino-6-chloro-pyrazine-2-carbonyl)-guanidine
= AMI), with the same coformer, 2,4-pyridinedicarboxylic
acid (PDA), resulted in three new crystalline products, (NIA)(PDA)
(1), (ALP)2(PDA)·1.5H2O (2), and (AMI)2(PDA)2(H2O)2 (3). The formation
of new phases was confirmed by IR spectra and X-ray single-crystal
and powder diffraction analysis. The proton transfer resulted in the
zwitterionic co-crystal 1. In co-crystal 2, neutral ALP molecules existed in the oxo-tautomeric form. Compound 3 crystallizes as the salt with the guanidinium cationic part
as in the started amiloride hydrochloride hydrate, and the PDA coformer
as the zwitterionic pyridinium dicarboxylate anion. Thus, the diversity
of the PDA coformer ionization states included the neutral, zwitterion,
and zwitterion anionic forms. All compounds were layered structures
where the heterocyclic molecules were linked in the H-bonded corrugated
layers stabilized by the diverse conventional and charge-assisted
hydrogen bonds with π–π stacking interactions between
the layers supported by the mediated water molecules in 2 and 3.