Stability of anhydrous theophylline in extemporaneously prepared alcohol-free oral suspensions

Computationally-assisted approach to the vibrational spectra of molecular crystals: study of hydrogen-bonding and pseudo-polymorphism

A new computationally-assisted methodology (PiMM), which accounts for the effects of intermolecular interactions in the crystal, is applied to the complete assignment of the Raman and infrared vibrational spectra of room temperature forms of crystalline caffeine, theobromine, and theophylline. The vibrational shifts due to crystal packing interactions are evaluated from ab initio calculations for a set of suitable molecular pairs, using the B3LYP/6-31G* approach. The proposed methodology provides an answer to the current demand for a reliable assignment of the vibrational spectra of these methyl-xanthines, and clarifies several misleading assignments. The most relevant intermolecular interactions in each system and their effect on the vibrational spectra are considered and discussed. Based on these results, significant insights are obtained for the structure of caffeine in the anhydrous form (stable at room temperature), for which no X-ray structure has been reported. A possible structure based on C((8))--H...N((9)) and C((1,3))--H...O intermolecular interactions is suggested.

Probing pseudopolymorphic transitions in pharmaceutical solids using Raman spectroscopy: hydration and dehydration of theophylline

Theophylline is known to undergo vapor phase induced hydrate-anhydrate pseudopolymorphic transformations, which can affect its bioavailability. In this work, the kinetics of the pseudopolymorphic transitions of theophylline crystals in different storage conditions is studied using a vibrational spectroscopic technique. While the hydration is a single-step process with a half-life time of ca. 5 h, the dehydration occurs through a two-step mechanism. In addition, the phase stability of hydrate-anhydrate systems in different relative humidity (RH) conditions was probed. The critical RH for anhydrous teophylline was found to be at ca. 79%, while the critical RH for dehydration is ca. 30%.