Abstract
Solubilities of oleanolic acid and ursolic acid in aqueous surfactant solutions, liquid polyethylene glycols (PEG), and solvents of various polarity were measured. The results showed that the solutes were slightly or moderately solubilized in the surfactant solutions and the liquid PEGs. It was also revealed that the solutes were slightly soluble in the solvent of either extreme polarity or nonpolarity, but moderately soluble in solvents of intermediate polarity of which solubility parameters are around 10. The solubility parameters of these solutes were calculated from the group contribution to be 10.2 for both of them. Of the solvents tested, tetramethylurea was exceptionally effective in solubilizing the solutes. The solutes were also moderately soluble in the aqueous cosolvents, containing tetramethylurea. This suggests that the mixed systems of tetramethylurea could be employed for the solubilization in the formulation of these compounds as an aqueous system.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References Cited
Altwood, D. and Florence, A. T., Surfactant Systems, Chapman and Hall, New York, 1983.
Bailey, Jr. F. D. and Koleske, J. V., Configuration and hydrodynamic properties of the polyoxyethylene chain in solution, in nonionic surfactants (Schick, M. J. ed.), Marcel Dekker, p. 794, 1967
Banker, G. S and Rhodes, C. T., Modern Pharmaceutics, Marcel Dekker, New York, p. 19, 1979
Hildebrand, J. H., Prausnitz, J. H. and Scott, R. L., Regular and Related Solutions, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1970
Lee, H. Y., Chung, H. Y., Kim, K. H., Lee, J. J. and Kim, K. W., Induction of differentiation in the cultured F9 teratocarcinoma stem cells by triterpene acids, Journal of Cancer Research and Clinical Oncology, Vol. 120, p. 513–518, 1994
Lee, H. Y. and Kim, K. W., Molecular analysis of the differentiation factor in the F9 teratocarcinoma cells, Mol. Cells, Vol. 24, p. 572–577, 1991
Martin, A., Swarbrick, J., and Cammarata, A., Physical Pharmacy, Lea and Fabiger, Philadelphia, 1983
Sohn, K. H., Lee, O. H., Lee, Y. N., Chung, H. Y., Lee, J. J., and Kim, K. W., Anti-angiogenic activity of ursolic acid, Yakhak Hoeji, Vol. 5, p. 532–537, 1993
Yalkowsky, S. H., Techniques of Solubilization of Drugs, Marcel Dekker, New York, 1981
Fedors, R. F., A method for estimating both the solubility parameters and molar volumes of liquids. Polymer Eng. Sci., Vol. 14, p. 147–154, 1974
Luthringhans and Dirksen, H. W., Tetramethylurea as a solvent and reagent, Angew. Chem. Internat. Edit., Vol. 3, p. 260–269, 1964
Windholz, M., The Merk Index (10th ed.), Merck & Co., Rahway, N. J., U.S.A. p. 9053, 1983
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Jin, I.J., Ko, Y.I., Kim, Y.M. et al. Solubilization of oleanolic acid and ursolic acid by cosolvency. Arch. Pharm. Res. 20, 269–274 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02976156
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02976156