Isoconversional kinetic analysis of thermal decomposition of Bidirectionally stabilized amorphous formulation loading Vitamin D3 (Cholecalciferol) and Calcium Carbonate

Abstract

Cholecalciferol, generally known as vitamin D₃ (VD), and calcium (Ca²⁺) are very common dietary co-supplements in the pharmaceutical formulations, as they are symbiotically and pharmacologically dependent. Development of the VD/Ca²⁺ formulation is highly challenging due to stability and solubility issues, mainly for VD instability toward temperature, light, oxygen and pH. In this study, VD was loaded into carrier which consisted of amorphous calcium carbonate (ACC) and hydroxypropyl methylcellulose acetate succinate (HPMCAS), yielding amorphous VD/ACC/HPMCAS formulation with various composition ratios. The structural and thermal stability study of the formulations was conducted to find that VD was a promising molecule for the stabilization of ACC even with the trace amount (0.6 %). On the other hand, ACC stabilized the amorphous state of VD; thus, they had a bidirectional stabilizing effect. The amount of VD played a significant role in thermal stabilization of the VD/ACC/HPMCAS formulations, for which kinetic analysis was performed. Using isoconversional expanded Friedman's model (FRM) activation energies of decomposition of the organic part were determined as 190, 133, and 114 kJ mol⁻¹ for VD/ACC/HPMCAS = 0.6/64.0/35.4, 2.3/56.8/40.9, and 4.9/52.6/42.5 formulations, respectively, revealing that the formulation with the highest amount of VD (4.9 %) was the least stable. The dissolution advantage for VD by amorphization was also demonstrated.