Designing of pharmaceuticals to improve physicochemical properties by spherical crystallization technique

In 1986, Kawashima and their coworkers developed the spherical crystallization technique for size enlargement of the drug in the field of pharmacy. Kawashima defined spherical crystallization as “An agglomeration process that transforms crystals directly into compact spherical forms during the crystallization process.” It also enables co-precipitation of drug and encapsulating polymer in the form of spherical particle. Spherical crystallization is the novel agglomeration technique that can transform directly the fine crystals produced in the crystallization process into a spherical shape. It is the versatile process that enables to control the type and the size of the crystals. It is the particle engineering technique by which crystallization and agglomeration can be carried out simultaneously in one step to transform crystals directly into compacted spherical form. This technique of particle design of drugs has emerged as one of the areas of active research currently of interest in pharmaceutical manufacturing and recently came into the forefront of interest or gained great attention and importance due to the fact that crystal habit (form, surface, size and particle size distribution) can be modified during the crystallization process. In consequence of such modifications in the crystal habit certain micrometric properties (bulk density, flow property, compactability) and physicochemical properties like solubility, dissolution rate, bioavailability and stability) can also be modified. The process is simple and inexpensive enough for scaling up to a commercial level. It reduces time and cost by enabling faster operation, less machinery and fewer personnel.