Kinetics of heterogeneous-induced degradation for artesunate and artemether

This paper presents the results obtained after the investigation of two artemisinin derived sesquiterpenes, namely artesunate and artemether, currently studied for their antitumor properties. The chosen methods of analysis included UATR–FTIR spectroscopy, characterization of the thermal behavior (TG/DTG/HF) in oxidative dynamic atmosphere, and a complete kinetic analysis. The latter was realized using two integral methods (Kissinger–Akahira–Sunose and Flynn–Wall–Ozawa), a differential one (Friedman), and was later completed with the modified NPK method. The study showed that both compounds show similar thermal stability in terms of apparent activation energies and the degradation processes occur in two parallel steps for each compound, this being solely due to chemical transformations.