Effects of pharmaceutical excipients on cloud points of amphiphilic drugs.

The clouding behavior, i.e., formation of phase separation at elevated temperature (the temperature being known as cloud point (CP)), of three amphiphilic drugs, amitriptyline (AMT), clomipramine (CLP) and imipramine (IMP) hydrochlorides in the presence of various additives, like cationic surfactants (conventional and gemini), nonionic surfactants, bile salts, anionic hydrotropes, sodium salts of fatty acids and cyclodextrin has been investigated. These additives are generally used as drug delivery systems. The drugs used are tricyclic antidepressants. All the surfactants increase the CP of mixed micelles formed by cationic (conventional and gemini) and nonionic surfactants. Hydrotropes, bile salts and fatty acid salts, when added in low concentrations, increase the CP, whereas at high concentrations, they decrease it. β-Cyclodextrin behaves as simple sugar and decreases the CP of the drug solutions.