Impact of polyethylene glycol molar mass and structural isomer of alcohol on the solubility and dissolution enhancement of mesalazine

This work reports the solubility of mesalazine (5-ASA) in mole fraction terms (x(1,T)) in mono-solvents of polyethylene glycol (PEG) 400, 1-propanol and 2-propanol along with their binary mixtures in different mass fractions of PEG 400 at 293.15-313.15 K and atmospheric pressure which measured experimentally by a shake-flask technique. The solubility of 5-ASA in these mixtures not only enhances with enhancing temperature, but also raises with raising PEG's mass fraction. Effect of PEG molar mass on the solubility of 5-ASA was also estimated by measuring its solubility in PEG 200 or 600 + 1- or 2-propanol mixtures at 298.15 K. Upon the same temperature and mass fraction of PEGs, the upward trend of 5-ASA mole fractions was: PEG 600 + 1-propanol > PEG 600 + 2propanol > PEG 400 + 1-propanol > PEG 400 + 2-propanol > PEG 200 + 1-propanol > PEG 200 + 2-propanol indicating, the binary mixtures containing a high molar mass of PEG and 1-propanol with a hydroxyl group attached to carbon number 1 had a more solubilization power. Then, the experimental mole fractions were modelled by some cosolvency and activity coefficient models, and the model parameters were regressed. The back-computed mole fractions of 5-ASA by cosolvency models presented a better agreement with the experimental data than that of activity models and Jouyban-Acree model had the best performance (low overall average percentage deviation of 6.1 %). By means of enthalpy-entropy compensation analysis, non-linear Delta H-sol(degrees) against Delta(sol)G(degrees) compensation plots with positive and negative slopes were achieved as a consequent of increasing 5-ASA solvation by PEG molecules and the solvent-structure loosing, respectively.