STABILITY AND HEMOLYTIC EFFECT OF PARENTERAL LORAZEPAM EMULSION FORMULATIONS

Filiz ÖNER*,o, Melek YALIN**, A.Atilla HINCAL*

*Hacettepe University, Faculty of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, 06100 Sihhiye, Ankara, TURKEY. **Refik Saydam Centram Institute of Hygiene, Drug, Cosmetics and Research Department,06100 Sihhiye, Ankara, TURKEY.
oCorresponding Author

Summary:
Intravenous lorazepam preparations in the drug market are solutions in water miscible organic solvents. Organic solvent containing formulations show considerable side effects when they are applied via i.v. route. In this study, suitable emulsions formulations for lorazepam have been developed. Considering the stability of the carrier emulsions, three different corn oil emulsions (10%), which were stabilized with egg lecithin and/or Pluronic F-68 and Pluronic F-88 were selected. The incorporation of lorazepam does not cause the chemical instability of lorazepam and physical instability of the emulsion. Formulations (fresh and 8 months aged) containing lorazepam and different emulsifiers were evaluated as a measure of safety of emulsions for parenteral drug carriers. These experimental findings showed that emulsions did not have any significant influence on the hemolysis of red blood cells. Water miscible cosolvents and lorazepam solutions in these cosolvents caused ten times higher hemolytic effect than emulsions.

Key words:
Lorazepam, Hemolytic effect, Parenteral emulsions, Stability