A CONTRIBUTION TO THE INTERACTION BETWEEN CHLORAMPHENICOL AND NONIONIC SURFACTANTS

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Department of Pharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmacy, Assiut University, Assiut Egypt

Abstract

The interaction between chloramphenicol and some nonionic surfactants has been investigated using both the dynamic and equilibrium dialysis techniques. The surfactants tested were Tweens, Myrjs and Brijs. The permeation of chloramphenicol across a standard cellophane membrane either in absence or presence of increasing concentrations of those surfactants was found to follow first order kinetics. The data revealed that, the presence of nonionic surfactants resulted in a reduction of the corresponding permeation rate constant. The extent of reduction was parallel to the surfactant concentration. The antimicrobial activity of chloramphenicol against B. subtilis (ATTC 663) was examined in presence of these nonionic surfactants. The data revealed that the presence of those surfactants has insignificantly affected the antimicrobial activity of chloramphenicol especially when they were used in concentrations above their respective CMC values.