Ibuprofen and its Interaction with Glucosamine

Abstract

Ibuprofen is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) with analgesic, anti-inflammatory and antipyretic actions. In addition, ibuprofen is well absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract following oral or rectal administration. For these reasons, ibuprofen is recommended for the symptomatic relief of certain acute arthritis, nonrheumatic inflammations, fever and dysmenorrhea. Although ibuprofen is well absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract, it has a low aqueous solubility. Recently using surfactants or compounding with another compound has been used to improve the solubility and efficacy of ibuprofen. Glucosamine is effective for relieving the symptoms of osteoarthritis. In this project, 2%Tween80 aqueous solution was used as a surfactant, studies were: determination of the purity, solubility of ibuprofen, and comparisons of the dissolution rate, the diffusion rate, and the binding of ibuprofen in the presence of glucosamine. An HPLC method was established and used throughout to measure ibuprofen and ibuprofen combined with glucosamine at different ratios. Fenoprofen was used as internal standard. This method is simple, sensitive, precise and rapid, and Carbon-14 radio-labelling was also used in the binding study. Glucosamine increased solubility of ibuprofen in 2% Tween80 aqueous solution, and at the ratio between ibuprofen and glucosamine as 1:1, the solubility of ibuprofen in 2% Tween80 reached 2.73g/L. Glucosamine also had a synergetic effect on ibuprofen dissolution and diffusion. However glucosamine had no significant effect on the ibuprofen binding in our studies.