Formulation of stable detoxifying w/o/w reactive multiple emulsions : in vitro evaluation

Over the last decade, acute drug intoxications have been known to be a serious threat to the public health field. Nevertheless, only a few means of imperfect detoxication treatments have, unfortunately, been applied to date. This paper presents water-in-oil-in-water (w/o/w) reactive multiple emulsions (ME) as an efficient method of in vitro detoxication against Nivaquine, a drug widely accused of being used in suicide attempts. The detoxication efficiency of these emulsions is attributed to the use of an adequate extractant-trapping agent couple giving a good extraction yield. Interestingly, some prepared emulsions showed a Nivaquine extraction yield of about 85%. A series of studies was conducted to recognize the effect of the preparation protocol, the emulsion ingredients, especially the extractant-trapping agent couple, and the experimental conditions on the extraction output. The extraction yield increases with the concentration of the extractant and with the alcalinization of the extraction medium. Globally, these reactive multiple emulsions have shown to be stable and highly detoxifying against Nivaquine taken as a toxic molecule model. Moreover, the process of Nivaquine extraction by the extractant in the oily phase and its trapping in the internal aqueous phase has been elucidated and validated.