In vitro and in vivo characteristics of some commercial phenobarbital tablets

Using an incompletely randomized crossover study design, the oral bioavailability characteristics of 7 different brands of phenobarbital tablets, USP, 100 mg was investigated in 5 adult, male volunteers. From plasma drug concentration-time data, best estimates for the bioavailability parameters of peak plasma phenobarbital concentration (Cmax) and time to peak concentration (tmax) were obtained by curve fitting and area under the plasma drug concentration-time curve (AUC) computed with the trapezoid rule. No significant difference in Cmax or normalized AUC was seen for the 7 products investigated. Additionally, a difference in tmax was observed between 2 preparations (A and E) only (p less than or equal to 0.05). All drug products met USP requirements for weight variation and tablet disintegration and all but one product (D) exhibited reasonably good and similar dissolution characteristics in simulated gastric fluid. No correlation between various in vitro dissolution parameters and in vivo bioavailability of phenobarbital could be found for the 7 phenobarbital products studied.