The deacetylation of aspirin is promoted by a-and P-cyclodextrins (aCD and PCD) in basic aqueous solution. From saturation kinetics the dissociation constants (K,) for the aspirin anion -CD complexes are 12 mM (aCD) and 20 mM (PCD). At pH 12.25 the limiting rate constant for ester cleavage is 14 times (aCD) and 7 times (PCD) that in the medium alone. For the 4-chloroaspirin anion (K, = 3.8 mM) the cleavage induced by aCD is 240 times that in the medium, but 5-chloroaspirin shows a very small effect. The results are discussed in terms of a model derived from that of Bender and co-workers (1967) and are compared to earlier work. For the aCD anion, the 4-chloroaspirin anion is almost as good as "substrate" as m-chloroand m-tert-butylphenyl acetates. Compared to hydroxide ion, the aCD anion is better at cleaving 4-chloroaspirin (2000x) and aspirin (36 X).OSWALD S. TEE et BRYAN K. TAKASAKI. Can. J. Chem. 63, 3540 (1985). The solubility of aspirin (0-acetylsalicylic acid, ASA) in water is quite low (1 g/300 mL) (1). However, it can be increased substantially by the addition of the complexing agents a -and P-cyclodextrin, the effect of the latter being greater (2). P-Cyclodextrin also stabilizes solid aspirin (3). Any attempts to use these effects for pharmaceutical purposes (2,3) should take into account the ability of cyclodextrins to promote the deacylation of phenyl acetates in aqueous solution (4). In the strictest sense of the word, cyclodextrins do not catalyze the hydrolysis of these esters since their deacylation results in the formation of an acetylcyclodextrin, which undergoes hydrolysis relatively slowly (4).The seminal studies carried out by Bender and co-workers (4, 5) included m-andp-carboxyphenyl acetates ( 2 , 3 ) but not, OAc 0 A c 0 Acsurprisingly, ASA (1) (4). In view of the lack of a prior study and the potential interest of its results, it seemed worthwhile to examine the behavior of ASA under hydrolytic conditions in the presence of cyclodextrins. For comparative purposes, 4-chloro-and 5-chloroaspirin were also studied briefly.'Author to whom correspondence should be addressed 'N.S.E.R.C. summer student, 1984. Results and discussion The rate of hydrolysis of aspirin is very slow at intermediate pHs but it rises monotonically with hydroxide ion in aqueous base (6). For the sake of convenience we chose the pH range 11 -14 which is close to that used by Bender and co-workers (4, 5). Moreover, within this range lie the apparent pK,s of the secondary hydroxyls of cyclodextrins that are involved in ester cleavage (4, 5, 7). Table 1 and Fig. 1 show pH-rate data for the deacylation of ASA in the absence of and in the presence of a-and P-cyclodextrin (aCD and PCD). As expected from earlier work (6), the rate constant for hydrolysis in the absence of cyclodextrin simply increases linearly with [OH-]. However, with aCD or PCD present the cleavage is faster at lower pH, the effect levelling off above pH 12 until by pH 13.5 normal Can. J. Chem. Downloaded from www.nrcresearchpress.com by 34.218.44.141 on 0...