Why is SLS in my medicine?

Zoe01

I was putting a box of generic Prilosec away and happened to glance at the inactive ingredients section. What did I find? SLS ! What possible function could it have in medication? I rarely pay attention to the inactive ingredients section but I will from now on. Who knows what else it is in.

SuperGreen

indeed!  It's a surficant, so maybe it's keeping two other inert ingredients bound together?  That's the best I can come up with.

Tambcat

That IS weird.

Seems like it would make you poop. I'm basing this solely on the fact that that is what I've always been told ingesting dish detergent does.

Alisha_A

Well Prilosec is antigas/antacid, right? I'm guessing it sort of foams up in your tummy to coat the insides. That's my totally unfounded theory.

CDMay2006

Not sure, but i bet a pharmicist could tell you (i hope, anyway).

huddlstn

I posted a little while ago about how I am looking for new vitamins, because the presciption prenatals I got from the pharmacy had a ton of scary-looking inactive ingredients, and one of them was SLS! I really have no idea why they've started putting it in meds.

Tambcat

I did a little googling, and it looks like it's used to help the medicine dissolve in your system.

Sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) is a commonly used surfactant in dissolution media for poorly water soluble drugs.

http://www.springerlink.com/content/pt77hx1388704122/

http://www.aapsj.org/abstracts/AM_2003/AAPS2003-001304.PDF

kass11

Tambcat:

Sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) is a commonly used surfactant in dissolution media for poorly water soluble drugs.

This.  I'm a pharmacist.