Curcumin cocrystals using supercritical fluid technology

Abstract Cocrystallization is a method that enables an improvement in physicochemical properties such as solubility, bioavailability, dissolution rate and stability. Curcumin (CUR) is bioactive ingredient known for its wide variety of medicinal benefits, such as anti-inflammatory, anti-carcinogenic, antimalarial and antioxidant activity, however its low solubility in water medium and hence low bioavailability represents a barrier in its use in food and pharmaceutical industry. This work aims to produce curcumin cocrystals by Cocrystallization with Supercritical Solvent (CSS) technique in order to improve curcumin water dissolution rate. N-acetylcysteine (NAC) was chose as coformer by previous screening using Liquid Assisted Grinding (LAG) technique. The cocrystals formations were confirmed through characterizations by Differential Scanning Calorimetry, Powder X-Ray Diffraction, Fourier Transform-Infrared Spectroscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy. Cocrystals dissolution rate were about 2.2 times greater than pure curcumin dissolution in water medium, which opens new possibilities of use for these cocrystals in pharmaceutical and food industries.