A review on cocrystal of active ingredients in traditional Chinese medicine

In the development of new drugs products, especially the development of traditional Chinese medicine active ingredients, solubility and oral bioavailability are the main factors which are restricting the development of new drugs, whereas the physicochemical properties of active ingredients are the key element to affecting these factors. Pharmaceutical cocrystal provides an excellent opportunity to develop new drugs with excellent physical and chemical properties such as melting point, solubility, stability and bioavailability while retaining the pharmacological properties of individuals active pharmaceutical ingredients among pharmaceutical cocrystal compounds. Traditional Chinese herbal medicine has the characteristics of multiple pathways and multiple targets, mainly because it contains many active ingredients, like cocrystals thereof with many components. The active ingredients extracted from traditional Chinese herbal medicine have a wide range of pharmacological activities, but most of the active ingredients affect the development of traditional Chinese medicine active ingredients due to their physical and chemical properties such as solubility. Traditional Chinese medicine pharmaceutical cocrystals can not only improve the physical and chemical properties of drugs without changing the internal structure of drugs, so as to provide a new scheme for the development of traditional Chinese medicine active ingredients. This paper reviews the research progress of active ingredients of traditional Chinese medicine pharmaceutical cocrystal. The preparation methods of cocrystals are summarized and the advantages of cocrystals are illustrated with examples.