A Modification of the Extended Hildebrand Approach to Predict the Solubility of Structurally Related Drugs in Solvent Mixtures

Abstract— A modification of the extended Hildebrand equation is proposed to estimate the solubility of an organic drug in solvent mixtures. The equation accurately reproduces the solubility of four sulphonamides in dioxane-water mixtures without requiring the heat of fusion of the solute. A single equation is obtained for predicting the solubility of related drugs using the solubilities of the drugs in the pure solvents, dioxane and water, and solute-solvent interaction terms consisting of the solubility parameter, δ₂, of the solute and the solubility parameter, δ₁, and basic partial solubility parameter, δ_1b, of the solvent mixture. By this procedure a single equation was obtained to estimate the solubilities of three xanthines in dioxane-water and another equation to obtain the solubilities of four sulphonamides. The equation obtained for sulphonamides is able to predict the experimental solubilities of two parent compounds, sulphasomidine and sulphathiazole, and the solubilities of a drug of different structure, p-hydroxybenzoic acid. This suggests that the intermolecular solute-solvent interaction of sulphonamides and p-hydroxybenzoic acid are similar. The results indicate that the solubility behaviour of drugs having different structures may be modelled using a common equation provided that they show similar solute-solvent interactions.