Production of meloxicam suspension using pulsed laser ablation in liquid (PLAL) technique

Organic particles in the micrometer/nanometer size range can find applications in various fields. Unfortunately their production is not a straightforward task for a number of materials. In the present work the production of meloxicam particles in the micrometer range was aimed with the help of pulsed laser ablation in liquid environment (PLAL). Targets pressed from crystalline meloxicam powder were placed in distilled water and irradiated with a focused beam of a frequency doubled (532 nm) nanosecond Nd:YAG laser at 4.2-9.4 J cm(-2) fluence. Morphological investigation showed that the produced suspension contained particles in the similar to 100 nm to 10 mu m size range (1.0-2.0 mu m on average), which is about 10 times smaller than the size of the initial material. FTIR spectroscopic investigations demonstrated that the chemical composition was preserved, while x-ray diffraction and calorimetric measurements indicated partial amorphization of meloxicam during the process. The overall results suggest that the particles are mostly produced by the fragmentation of the pressed target by the recoil forces induced by the laser pulse. Long period sedimentation tests of the suspension combined with UV-vis spectroscopic analysis showed that by the method of PLAL a greater fraction of the poorly water soluble meloxicam could be dispersed and dissolved in water in a pharmaceutically preferred formation than by simple dissolution of it.