Panel Discussion

Withania somnifera is a xerophytic plant whose methanolic extract of leaves and roots powder has exhibited effectiveness against various diseases. Like other natural products, its methanolic root powder extract also displayes poor dissolution because of high lipophilicity and poor aqueous solubility. The current reseach work was intended to formulate polymeric amorphous solid dispersion (PASD) system of methanolic extract of Withania somnifera root powder for improving its dissolution characteristics. The solvent evaporation method with three different polymers - HPMCAS-L, PVP K-30, and soluplus^® were used to prepare the amorphous system. The complete transformation of the crystalline phytoconstituents to an amorphous/molecularly dispersed state was confirmed by DSC and PXRD studies, with all tested polymers at a 1:4 polymer ratio. The stability of phytoconstituents within prepared PASDs was confirmed by FTIR study, which revealed no changes in any of the distinctive peaks of pure extract. The prepared PASDs had significantly higher saturation solubility compared to pure extract. The formulated PASDs demonstrated substantial improvement in the dissolution properties of phytoconstituents compared to a pure extract containing capsules (f₂<50). The result of antioxidant studies proved significantly higher radical scavenging activity for prepared PASDs compared to pure extract.