Antidotal Effect of Activated Charcoal and Selected Saline Cathartics on Simulated Bromazepam Intoxication

Abstract

Investigation of the effect of saline cathartics namely, magnesium sulphate, sodium sulphate, sodium citrate and sodium chloride on adsorptive capacity of activated charcoal (AC) in bromazepam poisoning was carried out in vitro. Solutions of bromazepam alone and bromazepam with 7.5mg/ml cathartics solution were vortex mixed for 30 seconds with two different doses of AC (100mg and 400mg), incubated in water bath shaker for 30 minutes at 37^OC and the clear supernatant obtained was analyzed for free bromazepamspectrophotometrically at 211nm. The addition of the cathartics resulted in a significant increase (p<0.05) in the adsorption of bromazepam to activated charcoal. The ascending order of increased adsorption by the cathartics is sodium citrate, sodium chloride, magnesium sulphate and sodium sulphate.