Recrystallization of phenacetin and sulfathiazole using the sonocrystallization process

• Sonocrystallization is used to recrystallize two APIs, phenacetin and sulfathiazole.
• Solid-state properties of API can be efficiently controlled by sonocrystallization.
• Dissolution rates of two APIs are enhanced significantly after sonocrystallization.

In this study, a cooling sonocrystallization process is used to recrystallize two active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), phenacetin and sulfathiazole, to modify the solid-state property and enhance the dissolution behavior. Recrystallization results using different organic solvents are presented and discussed. For both APIs, the crystal habit and mean particle size are modified significantly after the cooling sonocrystallization process. Recrystallized API particles show more regular habit and its mean particle size can be reduced to about 10 µm. In addition, for sulfathiazole, polymorph modification is also observed when different organic solvent is used. Furthermore, by dissolution studies, recrystallized APIs show enhanced dissolution behavior compared with the original samples. These results demonstrate that the sonocrystallization process is an efficient tool in pharmaceutical industry for solid state property control and dissolution rate enhancement.

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