Micellar Chromatographic Partition Coefficients - an Alternative to Tradition

Classically, partition coefficients are determined using octanol and water (Pow) to mimic movement of drugs through biological membranes. An alternative system is proposed using chromatography to determine micelle/water partition coeffi cients (Pmw) for pharmaceutical compounds. It is proposed that using a micellar system provides an interesting alternative to the traditional method that is experimentally faster, equally precise yet most importantly achieves a higher level of accuracy when attempting to correlate with an in vivo situation. This work initially focuses on four drugs with a comparative study between literature Pow and measured Pmw values, this is followed by a comparative study of column and surfactant selection.