Enhancement of Dissolution Rate and Bioavailability of Nifedipine by Chitosan Based Cocrystallization Technique

The objective of present study was to enhance solubility and dissolution behaviour of nifedipine by using cocrystallization method. A significant increase in solubility and dissolution rate of nifedipine has been demonstrated by solvent change method using chitosan. In this method, chitosan was precipitated on nifedipine crystals using sodium citrate as a salting out agent. An accurately weighed chitosan was dissolved in 1% acetic acid and drug was added in the chitosan solution. This resulting solution was added drop wise into 1% sodium citrate solution with continuous stirring. Sodium citrate precipitate polymer on drug crystals. FTIR, DSC, XRD, SEM, In-vitro dissolution studies, were studied for characterization of prepared cocrystals. Stability studies showed a good stability character of prepared cocrystals. Design Expert® software version 10.0 was used to develop polynomial models which were analysed to delineate the main effects for each CQA (critical quality attributes) through Box-Bhenken design expert. Pharmacokinetic study clearly showed the enhancement of dissolution rate of cocrystals. The above investigation concluded that the significant dose reduction is possible for nifedipine with cocrystal formulation which leads to improve patient compliance.