Supercritical fluid impregnation of pharmaceuticals into starch: experiments and parameters optimization

The aim of this thesis is to study the possibility of using starch for drug impregnation, using supercritical carbon dioxide.\nExperiments have been performed on two starch types, tapioca and corn starch, and with two model drugs: ibuprofen sodium salt and caffeine. Impregnation has been studied by changing temperature, pressure and treatment time. All the experiments performed showed that it is not possible to achieve high drug impregnation of the starch matrix. For this reason, starch does not seem to be a proper material for this technology.\nHowever, based on observations done during this study, another interesting technique has been developed, which exploits a drug melting point depression, due to CO2 pressure, to produce a solid dispersion, using starch as the substrate, without need of organic solvents.\nEncouraging results have been found and other experiments and analysis are suggested to better develop this idea.