Salts of purine alkaloids caffeine and theobromine with 2,6-dihydroxybenzoic acid as coformer: structural, theoretical, thermal and spectroscopic studies.

The study of various forms of pharmaceutical substances with specific physicochemical properties suitable for putting them on the market is one of the elements of research in the pharmaceutical industry. A large proportion of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) occur in the salt form. The use of an acidic coformer with a given structure and a suitable pK value towards purine alkaloids containing a basic imidazole N atom can lead to salt formation. In this work, 2,6-dihydroxybenzoic acid (26DHBA) was used for cocrystallization of theobromine (TBR) and caffeine (CAF). Two novel salts, namely, theobrominium 2,6-dihydroxybenzoate, CHNO·CHO (I), and caffeinium 2,6-dihydroxybenzoate, CHNO·CHO (II), were synthesized. Both salts were obtained independently by slow evaporation from solution, by neat grinding and also by microwave-assisted slurry cocrystallization. Powder X-ray diffraction measurements proved the formation of the new substances. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction studies confirmed proton transfer between the given alkaloid and 26DHBA, and the formation of N-H...O hydrogen bonds in both I and II. Unlike the caffeine cations in II, the theobromine cations in I are paired by noncovalent N-H...O=C interactions and a cyclic array is observed. As expected, the two hydroxy groups in the 26DHBA anion in both salts are involved in two intramolecular O-H...O hydrogen bonds. C-H...O and π-π interactions further stabilize the crystal structures of both compounds. Steady-state UV-Vis spectroscopy showed changes in the water solubility of xanthines after ionizable complex formation. The obtained salts I and II were also characterized by theoretical calculations, Fourier-transform IR spectroscopy (FT-IR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and elemental analysis.