Solvents effects on crystallinity and dissolution of β-artemether*

Abstractβ-artemether (ARM) is a widely used anti-malarial drug isolated from the Chinese antimalarial plant, Artemisia annua. The solvent effects on crystal habits and dissolution of ARM were thoroughly investigated and discussed herein. The ARM was recrystallized in nine different solvents of varied polarity, namely, methanol, ethanol, isopropanol, tetrahydrofuran, dichloromethane, trichloromethane, ethyl acetate, acetone and hexane by solvent evaporation method. The obtained crystals were morphologically characterized using scanning electron microscope (SEM). The average sizes of crystals were 1.80–2.64 μm calculated from microscopic images using Image-Pro software. No significant change in chemical structure was noticed after recrystallization and the specific band at 875 cm−1 wavenumber (C–O–O–C) confirmed the presence of most sensitive functional group in the ARM chemical structure. The existence and production of two polymorphic forms, polymorph A and polymorph B, was confirmed by differential scann...