Effect of process parameters on crystal size and morphology of lactose in ultrasound-assisted crystallization

alpha-lactose monohydrate is widely used as a pharmaceutical excipient. Drug delivery system requires the excipient to be of narrow particle size distribution with regular particle shape. Application of ultrasound is known to increase or decrease the growth rate of certain crystal faces and controls the crystal size distribution. In the present paper, effect of process parameters such as sonication time, anti-solvent concentration, initial lactose concentration and initial pH of sample on lactose crystal size, shape and thermal transition temperature was studied. The parameters were set according to the L-9-orthogonal array method at three levels and recovered lactose from whey by sonocrystallization. The recovered lactose was analyzed by particle size analyzer, scanning electron microscopy and differential scanning calorimeter. It was found that the morphology of lactose crystal was rod/needle like shape. Crystal size distribution of lactose was observed to be influenced by different process parameters. From the results of analysis of variance, the sonication time interval was found to be the most significant parameter affecting the volume median diameter of lactose with the highest percentage contribution (74.28%) among other parameters. (C) 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim