Artemisinin (ART) is a most promising antimalarial agent. However, its low aqueous solubility limits its oral absorption, resulting in low bioavailability. In this study, we have successfully discovered a novel cocrystal with 2-methyl resorcinol (ART-2MRE) providing improved solubility compared with a previously reported cocrystal with resorcinol (ART-RES). Single crystal X-ray structure analysis revealed that the ART-2MRE cocrystal was composed of ART and 2MRE in a molar ratio of 2 : 1. Though the ART-2MRE and ART-RES cocrystals were found to have similarities in their crystal structures, with one layer of a cocrystal former and two layers of ART arranged in alternating rows, the ART-2MRE cocrystal showed higher dissolution rate than ART-RES cocrystal. In situ real-time low-frequency (LF) Raman monitoring and powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) measurements of the crystals during the dissolution test proved useful to investigate the dissolution behavior of the cocrystals. Low-frequency Raman monitoring revealed that as dissolution progressed, there was a continuous shift from the peak unique to the ART-2MRE cocrystal to the peak unique to the ART stable form. Similar observations were obtained in PXRD measurements as well. Furthermore, experiments were conducted by adding a polymer to the dissolution test solution to investigate the dissolution behavior under supersaturation, indicating the possibility of differences in the dissolution behavior between the ART-2MRE cocrystal and ART-RES cocrystal. Understanding the dissolution behavior from cocrystals is essential in developing cocrystals.
Keywords: ART; Artemisinin; LF Raman; cocrystal; dissolution; low-frequency Raman spectroscopy.