Enhancement of Dissolution Rate of Quercetin Using Solid Dispersion Approach: In Vitro and In Vivo Evaluation

Objective: The objective of present study was to enhance the potential activities of Quercetin by improving its solubility and dissolution profiles through solid dispersion approach. Method: A three level full factorial design (32) was adopted to study the possible combinations of polyethylene glycol (PEG) 6000 & pluronic F 127 (PF 127). The solid dispersions were prepared by solvent evaporation method and evaluated for percentage yield, drug content, aqueous solubility and drug release. For in vivo evaluations SD4 was incorporated into Carbopol base gel and subjected to anti-inflammatory activity using carrageenan-induced rat paw edema method. Results: SD4 batch with drug to carrier ratio 1:1 showed release of 82.96 ± 1.76 % in 240 min following Higuchi’s model. It was 5.54 fold increment in solubility as compared to quercetin. SD4 batch was further evaluated by FTIR, DSC, PXRD and SEM. The crystallinity was significantly reduced and drug was homogeneously dispersed in the carrier as shown by the results of DSC, PXRD and SEM. The DPPH scavenging assay showed significance in the IC50 value of SD4 as compared to pure quercetin and ascorbic acid when subjected to one way ANOVA at 0.05 level of significance (P<0.0001). In vivo anti-inflammatory study showed 78.17 ± 0.156 % inhibition of edema by SD4 and 58.64 ± 0.640 % by pure quercetin which is significantly lower (P<0.05). Conclusion: These findings demonstrate that the solid dispersion of quercetin shows increased solubility, dissolution profile, drug release and significant potential in enhancing the antiinflammatory activity of drug.