Abstract

PHYSICOCHEMICAL CHARACTERIZATION AND SOLUBILITY ENHANCEMENT OF SIMVASTATIN USING SOLID DISPERSION TECHNOLOGY

Abstract

The objective of the present study was to formulate solid dispersions (SD) of Simvastatin (SIM) to improve the aqueous solubility and dissolution rate to facilitate faster onset of action. Simvastatin is a BCS Class II drug having low solubility (1.45 μg/mL) and therefore low oral bioavailability (5%). In the present study, SDs of simvastatin different drug–carrier ratios was prepared by a co evaporation method. solid dispersions were characterized by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), powder x-ray diffractometry (PXRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and infrared spectroscopy (IR) and evaluated for drug content, saturation solubility, pH-dependent solubility, in vitro dissolution, and. DSC studies revealed that there was no interaction between drug and carrier, whereas the PXRD study demonstrated that there was a significant decrease in crystallinity of pure drug present in solid dispersions, which resulted in an increased dissolution rate of simvastatin.

Keywords: Simvastatin, Drug release, Solid dispersion.