Effects of Solvent and Impurity on Crystal Habit Modification of 11α-Hydroxy-16α, 17α-epoxyprogesterone

The effects of solvent and impurity on the crystal habit of 11α-hydroxy-16α, 17α-epoxyprogesterone (HEP) grown from solution were studied by scanning electron microscope. Long prismatic crystals were produced when HEP was crystallized from pure acetone and N, N-dimethylformamide, while blocky crystals were produced from pure chloroform by cooling crystallization. One kind of isomorphic impurity, 16α, 17α-epoxyprogesterone (EP) was selected to examine its effect on the HEP crystal habit. When the content of EP in the mother liquor is very high (55.45%, solvent free basis), the habit of produced HEP crystals was greatly modified from prismatic to octahedral. The differential scanning calorimetry and X-ray powder diffraction analyses showed that the change of crystal habit was originated from the crystal structure modification.