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CrystEngComm RSCPublishing
ARTICLEThis journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2013 J. Name., 2013, 00, 1-3 | 1 A series of twelve multi-component molecular crystals of the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) piroxicam (PX) have been synthesised and their structures analysed with respect to their supramolecular motifs and degree of intermolecular hydrogen transfer observed on formation of the various complexes. The multi-component crystals of PX formed with a series of basic N-heterocycles are contrasted with those formed with strong haloanilic acids, with PX found to adopt different ionisation states. The effect of the formation of these multi-component molecular crystals on the physical property of solubility, often crucial in API formulation, has been investigated and these solubility determinations are compared with those of the parent PX material. Enhanced solubility is evident in some of the multi-component crystals formed.
IntroductionMulti-component crystallisation -also referred to as cocrystallisation -is the method of bringing together two or more different molecules into the same crystal lattice to form a molecular complex or salt 1 . Molecular complexes from cocrystallisation experiments are seen as an increasingly useful tool in the preparation of solid forms of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), with molecular complexes of pharmaceuticals not only having the potential to be patented as new materials 2 , but also for improving the physicochemical properties of an API without compromising the structural integrity 3 . Piroxicam (PX) is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) that has been extensively studied in the solid state [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] . Presented here are further investigations of multicomponent molecular crystals of this important API, with particular regard to the crystal engineering potential and the potential modification of relevant physical properties of the multi-component crystals formed, with respect to those of the parent material. In terms of the crystal engineering aspects, the aim is to identify robust synthons which may be utilised for future design of molecular complexes of piroxicam, while the particular physical property under investigation here is that of solubility, relevant to a wide range of APIs in seeking to develop their optimized formulation in manufacturing and processing of pharmaceutical products. In the solid state, piroxicam has previously been shown to exist in two ionisation states when not in its neutral form. While pure piroxicam exists in the non-ionised form in the solid state, it has been shown that in polar solvents, such as acetonitrile which is commonly used in crystallisation experiments with piroxicam, the zwitterionic form is present in large quantities 12,13 . The formation of the zwitterion, through intramolecular hydrogen-transfer, has been observed in solvates and ...