Development and Characterization of Aspirin-Phospholipid Complex for Improved Drug Delivery

Aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) is one of the most widely used analgesic. Aspirin is poorly soluble in water and causes gastrointestinal (GI) irritation. To improve the solubility (and hence the bioavailability) and minimize the GI irritation, its complexes with soya-phospholipid-80 % (in 1: 1 molar ratio) were prepared in an organic solvent and evaluated for solubility, drug content, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), FT-IR spectra, X ray diffraction, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and in vitro dissolution study. Aspirin-phospholipid complex were found to be disc shaped with rough surface in SEM. Drug content in the complex was found to be 95.6 %. DSC thermograms, XRD and FTIR confirmed the formation of phospholipid complex. Solubility of the prepared complex was found to be improved. Aspirin complex and aspirin showed 90.93 % and 69.42 % of drug release at the end of 10 h in dissolution study in pH 1.2 acid buffer. It was concluded that the phospholipid complex of aspirin may be of potential use for improving the solubility of aspirin and hence its bioavailability. The complexes may also reduce GI toxicity of the drug.