Potential of liquid membranes for drug overdose treatment: in vitro studies.

The in vitro removal of six barbiturates from pH 2 donor solutions by liquid membranes with pH control was evaluated. More than 90% of amorbarbital, phenobarbital, and secobarbital were removed within 10 min by the liquid membranes. Drug transport obeyed first-order kinetics initially, and Fick's law was obeyed. The transport rate of phenobarbital by a liquid membrane was temperature dependent. An Arrhenius plot revealed that the activation energy was 10 kcal/mole. The liquid membranes showed some instability in the presence of bile salts.