Compatibility study of the acetylsalicylic acid with different solid dosage forms excipients

This study is part of a research project aimed to find and optimize methods by which drug-excipient compatibility can be reliably and quickly assessed. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the compatibility of the acetylsalicylic acid (ASA), an non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, with pharmaceutical excipients of common use including diluents, binders, disintegrants, lubricants and solubilising agents. In order to investigate the possible interactions between ASA and eleven excipients differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetry/derivative thermogravimetry analysis completed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and X-ray powder diffraction were used for compatibility study. The DSC has proven to be, among the selected analytical techniques, the most sensitive and specific in assessing the compatibility. The samples, as physical mixtures, were prepared by mixing the analyte and excipients in a proportion of 1:1 (w:w). On the basis of thermal results (especially DSC), confirmed by FT-IR and X-ray analysis, a possible chemical interaction was found between the ASA with polyvinylpyrrolidone K30 (PVP) and magnesium stearate, respectively a possible physical interaction with colloidal silicon dioxide and stearic acid (Ac. St.).     

Thermal stability of pentoxifylline: active substance and tablets

Thermal analysis is a routine method in the solution of pharmaceuticals problems such as the control of raw materials, to the determination of purity, to the qualitative and quantitative analysis of drug formulation, tests of thermal stability and compatibility, the determination of kinetic parameters, etc. The evaluation of thermal stability in the solid state is mostly made by analyzing their decomposition under isothermal and non-isothermal conditions. The present work reports the study on the thermal behavior of pentoxifylline—active substance and tablets, respectively, the determination of the kinetic parameters for the decomposition process under non-isothermal conditions and in a nitrogen atmosphere at five heating rates: 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10 and 15 °C min^?1. For the determination of kinetic parameters from the TG/DTG curves, the following differential methods were utilized: Friedman isoconversional and Chang, respectively, integral methods: Flynn–Wall–Ozawa, Kissinger–Akahira–Sunose, Li–Tang, and Starink. Thermoanalytical curves showed that the active substance is thermally more stable than the tablets. The decrease in stability was attributed to the presence of excipients.     

Thermal stability of piroxicam

The application of thermal method is of great importance regarding the pharmaceutical problems such as the control of raw materials, the determination of purity, the qualitative and quantitative analysis of drug formulation, tests of thermal stability and compatibility and the determination of kinetic parameters etc. The purpose of a kinetic investigation is to calculate the kinetic parameters and the determination of the kinetic model for the studied process. The results are further used to predict the system’s behaviour in various circumstances. A kinetic study regarding the piroxicam—active substance’s thermal decomposition was performed under isothermal conditions and nitrogen atmosphere, for the temperature steps: 200, 205, 210, 215 and 220 °C. The TG/DTG data were processed by three differential methods: isothermal—isoconversional, Friedman’s isothermal isoconversional and isothermal model-fitting. The obtained results are in good accord between them, as well as with those obtained under non-isothermal conditions from a previous work and confirm the necessity of the kinetic parameters determining in different thermal conditions, by the adequate calculation methods.     

Ab initio pseudopotential study of vacancies and self-interstitials in hcp titanium

By means of an ab initio plane-wave pseudopotential method, monovacancy, divacancy and self-interstitials in hcp titanium are investigated. The calculated monovacancy formation energy is 1.97 eV, which is in excellent agreement with other theoretical calculations, and agrees qualitatively with published experimental results. The relaxation of the atoms around a single vacancy is observed to be small. Two divacancy configurations, the in-plane and the off-plane, have also been shown to be equally stable. With regards to the interstitials, of the eight configurations studied, two (octahedral and basal octahedral) have relatively lower formation energies and are, thus, the most likely stable configurations. We find small energy differences between them, suggesting their possible co-existence. It is also observed that the tetrahedral configuration decays to a split dumbbell configuration, whereas both the basal tetrahedral and the basal pseudocrowdion interstitials decay to the basal octahedral configuration. Using the nudged elastic band method (NEB), we determine a possible minimum energy path (MEP) for the diffusion of self-interstitial titanium atoms from an octahedral site to the nearest octahedral site. The energy barrier for this migration mechanism is shown to be about 0.20 eV.     

Three New Acrylic Acid Derivatives from Achillea mellifolium as Potential Inhibitors of Urease from Jack Bean and α-Glucosidase from Saccharomyces cerevisiae

(1) Background: Achillea mellifolium belongs to a highly reputed family of medicinal plants, with plant extract being used as medicine in indigenous system. However, limited data is available regarding the exploitation of the medicinal potential of isolated pure compounds from this family; (2) Methods: A whole plant extract was partitioned into fractions and on the basis of biological activity, an ethyl acetate fraction was selected for isolation of pure compounds. Isolated compounds were characterized using different spectroscopic techniques. The compounds isolated from this study were tested for their medicinal potential using in-vitro enzyme assay, coupled with in-silico studies; (3) Results: Three new acrylic acid derivatives (1–3) have been isolated from the ethyl acetate fraction of Achillea mellifolium. The characterization of these compounds (1–3) was carried out using UV/Vis, FT-IR, 1D and 2D-NMR spectroscopy (¹H-NMR, ¹³C-NMR, HMBC, NOESY) and mass spectrometry. These acrylic acid derivatives were further evaluated for their enzyme inhibition potential against urease from jack bean and α glucosidase from Saccharomyces cerevisiae, using both in-silico and in-vitro approaches. In-vitro studies showed that compound 3 has the highest inhibition against urease enzyme (IC₅₀ =10.46 ± 0.03 μΜ), followed by compound 1 and compound 2 with percent inhibition and IC₅₀ value of 16.87 ± 0.02 c and 13.71 ± 0.07 μΜ, respectively, compared to the standard (thiourea-IC₅₀ = 21.5 ± 0.01 μΜ). The investigated IC₅₀ value of compound 3 against the urease enzyme is two times lower compared to thiourea, suggesting that this compound is twice as active compared to the standard drug. On the other hand, all three compounds (1–3) revealed mild inhibition potential against α-glucosidase. In-silico molecular docking studies, in combination with MD simulations and free energy, calculations were also performed to rationalize their time evolved mode of interaction inside the active pocket. Binding energies were computed using a MMPBSA approach, and the role of individual residues to overall binding of the inhibitors inside the active pockets were also computed; (4) Conclusions: Together, these studies confirm the inhibitory potential of isolated acrylic acid derivatives against both urease and α-glucosidase enzymes; however, their inhibition potential is better for urease enzyme even when compared to the standard.     

Improvement of thermal stability of EPDM by radiation cross-linking for space applications

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - The investigation of radiation effects on ethylene–propylene–diene terpolymer (EPDM) loaded with trifunctional monomer (trimethylolpropane...     

Amino Acid Functionalized Superparamagnetic Nanoparticles Inhibit Lysozyme Amyloid Fibrillization

Nanoparticles have great potential to be used in various biomedical applications, including therapy or diagnosis of amyloid-related diseases. The physical and chemical properties of iron oxide superparamagnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) functionalized with different amino acids (AAs), namely, with lysine (Lys), glycine (Gly), or tryptophan (Trp), have been characterized. The cytotoxicity of nanoparticles and their effect on amyloid fibrillization of lysozymes in vitro was also verified. The AA-MNPs under study are nontoxic to human SHSY5Y neuroblastoma cells. Moreover, the AA-MNPs were able to significantly inhibit lysozyme amyloid fibrillization and destroy amyloid fibrils. Kinetic studies revealed that the presence of AA-MNPs affected lysozyme fibrillization, namely, the lag phase and steady-state phase of the growth curves. The most effective activities were observed for Trp-MNPs, which revealed the importance of aromatic rings in the structure of AAs used as coating agents. The obtained results indicate the possible application of these AA-MNPs in the treatment of amyloid diseases associated with lysozyme or other amyloidogenic proteins.     

Thermal behaviour of erythromycin-active substance and tablets

The application of thermal methods is of great importance in the solution of pharmaceutical problems, such as the control of raw materials, the determination of purity, the qualitative and quantitative analysis of drug formulation, tests of thermal stability and compatibility, the determination of kinetic parameters etc. The evaluation of thermal stability in the solid state is mostly made by analyzing their decomposition under isothermal and non-isothermal conditions. This study reports the study on the thermal behaviour of erythromycin-active substance and tablets, respectively, the determination of the kinetic parameters for the decomposition process under non-isothermal conditions. For the determination of kinetic parameters from the TG/DTG curves, were utilized the following methods: Friedman isoconversional, Flynn–Wall–Ozawa, Kissinger–Akahira–Sunose, Li–Tang, and Kissinger, respectively, a dynamic nitrogen atmosphere and different heating rates: 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, and 15 °C min^?1. Thermoanalytical curves showed that the active substance is thermally more stable than the tablets and the values of activation energy indicate a considerable thermal stability of active substance. The decrease in stability was attributed to the presence of excipients.     

Edible flowers--a new promising source of mineral elements in human nutrition

On a global scale, people are demanding more attractive and tasty food. Both the quality of foodstuffs and aesthetic aspects contribute to the appearance of consumed meals. The attraction and appeal of individual dishes could be enhanced by edible flowers. New information concerning the composition and nutritional value of edible flowers is also important and represents a sufficient reason for their consumption. The aim of this study is to contribute to the popularization of some selected edible flowers of ornamental plants involving altogether 12 species. The flowers were used to determine their antioxidant capacity, which fluctuated between 4.21 and 6.96 g of ascorbic acid equivalents (AAE)/kg of fresh mass (FM). Correlation coefficients between antioxidant capacity and the contents of total phenolics and flavonoids were r2 = 0.9705 and r2 = 0.7861, respectively. Moreover, the results were supplemented with new data about the mineral composition of edible flowers (mostly, not found in the available literature). The highest levels of mineral elements were observed in the flowers of species Chrysanthemum, Dianthus or Viola. The most abundant element was potassium, the content of which ranged from 1,842.61 to 3,964.84 mg/kg of FM.     

Spectroscopic studies of mixed halogenotetraphosphazenes

Cyclotetraphosphazenes substituted non-geminally by fluorine and either chlorine or bromine have been prepared. The compounds with the general formula