Recrystallization of andrographolide using the supercritical fluid antisolvent process

The supercritical antisolvent (SAS) process was used to modify the solid-state properties of andrographolide. Ethanol was employed as solvents for the pharmaceutical compound and carbon dioxide was used as an antisolvent. The effect of process parameters on the precipitate crystals such as pressure, organic solution flow rate, and concentration of the andrographolide solution were investigated. The crystal habit is column-like and its size changed from longer and thicker to shorter and thinner when pressure increased and when the solution flow rate increased, the size of the crystal decreased. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns revealed variations of crystallinity and crystal orientation depending on pressure, where the degree of crystallinity increased when pressure increased. The differential scanning calorimetry patterns also showed the same results as XRD. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.