Mechanochemistry of magnesium oxide revisited: facile derivatisation of pharmaceuticals using coordination and supramolecular chemistry.

Liquid-assisted grinding allows the rapid, waste-free and one-pot synthesis of a variety of magnesium drug derivatives directly from the excipient MgO; such reactivity is relevant for the behaviour of ibuprofen formulations involving MgO and can be used for oxide-based mechanosynthesis of metal-organic salts, discrete complexes and carboxylate clusters involving magnesium and pharmaceutically active ingredients.