Solubility and Crystal Nucleation in Organic Solvents of Two Polymorphs of Curcumin

Two crystal polymorphs of 1,7-bis-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)-1,6-heptadiene-3,5-dione (curcumin) have been obtained by crystallization from ethanol (EtOH) solution. The polymorphs have been characterized by differential scanning calorimetry, infrared spectroscopy, and X-ray powder diffraction and shown to be the previously described forms I and III. The solubility of both polymorphs in EtOH and of one polymorph in ethyl acetate (EA) has been measured between 10°C and 50°C with a gravimetric method. Primary nucleation of curcumin from EtOH solution has been investigated in 520 constant temperature crystallization experiments in sealed, magnetically stirred vials under different conditions of supersaturation, temperature, and agitation rate. By a thermodynamic analysis of the melting data and solubility of form I, the solid-state activity is estimated from 10°C up to the melting point. The solubility is lower in EtOH than in EA, and in both solvents, a positive deviation from Raoult's law is observed. Form I has lower solubility than form III and is accordingly thermodynamically more stable over the investigated temperature interval. Extrapolation of solubility regression models indicates that there should be a low-temperature enantiotropic transition point, below which form I will be metastable. By slurry conversion experiments, it is established that this temperature is below -30°C. All nucleation experiments resulted in the stable form I. The induction time is observed to decrease with increasing agitation rate up to a certain point, and then increase with further increasing agitation rate; a trend previously observed for other compounds. By correlating the induction time data obtained at different supersaturation and temperature, the interfacial energy of form I in EtOH is estimated to be 3.0 mJ/m².