Study of the cloud point of the phenothiazine drug chlorpromazine hydrochloride: Effect of surfactants and polymers

Surfactants/polymers are used extensively in drug delivery as drug carriers. We herein report the effect of surfactants and polymers on the cloud point (CP) of amphiphilic drug chlorpromazine hydrochloride. At fixed drug concentration (50mM) and pH (6.7) these additives affect the CP in accordance to their nature and structure: anionic surfactants show an increase followed by a decrease, whereas cationic (conventional as well as gemini) and nonionic surfactants show continous increase. The behavior with polymers is dictated by the number of units present in a particular polymer. Increase in drug concentration and pH, in presence of fixed amounts of CTAB, increases and decreases the CP, respectively. Variation of CP with pH at various fixed gemini concentrations shows that gemini surfactants are better candidates for drug delivery.