LAUSR

Abstract Surfactant molecules are now become indispensible in drug formulations to reduce drug-drug interactions and most often to enhance the bioavailability of poorly water soluble life saving drugs. Recently, tetrabutylammonium bromide (TBAB) is the cationic surfactant of choice. A further advancement could be achieved by using mixed surfactant-cyclodextrin (CD) systems in drug delivery. A study on the inclusion behaviour of TBAB with β-CD host would therefore, have high scientific value for the development of novel TBAB based pharmaceutical formulations. We report herein the synthesis and complete physicochemical and spectral (UV, IR, NMR, ROESY, XRD, TGA, SEM etc.) characterization of the inclusion complex (IC) between TBAB and β-CD. The stoichiometry of the formed IC was evaluated as 1:1 by Job's plot. A comparison of 1H NMR spectra of TBAB, β-CD and IC and ROESY spectrum revealed that two out of four n-butyl chains were incorporated into CD cavity and the ammonium nitrogen atom stick out to the wider CD edge. The thermal stability of TBAB was found to increase after complexation. The experimental data were also correlated with the molecular docking study. In addition, the binding mode of the synthesized IC with Calf thymus DNA was also reported.