Equilibrium Solubility of Acetaminophen in Ternary Mixtures as a Tool for Design of Concentrated Parenteral Medications

Abstract

The main purpose of this research was to evaluate the mass/volume percentage (%m/v) solubility of acetaminophen (ACP) in {ethanol (EtOH) (1) + propylene glycol (PG) (2) + water (3)} mixtures from 20.0 to 40.0 °C to expand the solubility database of this drug in mixed pharmaceutical solvents useful for designing high concentrated liquid products including injectable solutions. This is because ACP is an analgesic drug widely used available for oral administration as tablets or solutions. Besides, as injectable products, it is only available for perfusion in as 1 g in 100 mL (1.0%m/v). However, it is not available as 5 mL ampules for supplying doses of 500 mg. As demonstrated in this research some cosolvent mixtures allow ACP concentrations higher than 10.0%m/v, for instance the aqueous ternary mixture with 20% w/w of ethanol and 30% w/w of PG, among other possible mixtures. Flask shake method and UV–vis spectrophotometry were used for ACP solubility determinations at different temperatures. ACP solubility results are presented as Cartesian and triangular solubility profiles. ACP solubility increases with temperature arising and the cosolvent proportion in the mixtures. Maximum %m/v ACP solubility value is observed in the aqueous ethanol binary mixture of w₁ = 0.80 at all temperatures being 21.18% at 25.0 °C. All the solubility values were well correlated using the Jouyban-Acree model obtaining mean percentage deviations of 3.8% (N = 330). In this way, %m/v equilibrium solubility of ACP in {EtOH + PG + water} mixtures has been studied and correlated at several temperatures as contribution to preformulation studies of injectable homogeneous liquid pharmaceutical dosage forms.