The permeation of several drugs such as promethazine hydrochloride, chlorpromazine hydrochloride, diethazine hydrochloride, triflupromazine hydrochloride, flufenamic acid, ketoprofen, indomethacin, and tolbutamide through a chitosan membrane was investigated as part of a series of studies on pharmaceutical applications of chitin and chitosan. The membrane constant of the chitosan membrane was found to be 0.0443, which is close to the reported value for cellulose membrane. The permeability decreased with increase in the molecular volume of the drugs. The activation energy of the permeation was found to be close to that of diffusion of usual organic drugs in water. Greater permeabilities were observed for acidic drugs than basic drugs. The observed effect of pH on the permeation of drugs through the chitosan membranes was considered to be attributable to the cationic state of the chitosan membrane. These results suggested that the permeation of drugs through the chitosan membrane is controlled mainly by diffusion through pores, especially in the case of drugs of smaller molecular volume, and depends upon the cationic state of the chitosan membrane.
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Sawayanagi et al. (1982) studied this question.