BUSCOPAN Coated tablets Ref.[6355] Active ingredients: Butylscopolamine

Absorption

As a quaternary ammonium compound, hyoscine butylbromide is highly polar and hence only partially absorbed following oral (8%) or rectal (3%) administration. After oral administration of single doses of hyoscine butylbromide in the range of 20 to 400 mg, mean peak plasma concentrations between 0.11 ng/mL and 2.04 ng/mL were found at approximately 2 hours. In the same dose range, the observed mean AUC_0-tz-values varied from 0.37 to 10.7 ng h/mL. The median absolute bioavailabilities of different dosage forms, i.e. coated tablets, suppositories and oral solution, containing 100 mg of hyoscine butylbromide each were found to be less than 1%.

Distribution

Because of its high affinity for muscarinic receptors and nicotinic receptors, hyoscine butylbromide is mainly distributed on muscle cells of the abdominal and pelvic area as well as in the intramural ganglia of the abdominal organs. Plasma protein binding (albumin) of hyoscine butylbromide is approximately 4.4%. Animal studies demonstrate that hyoscine butylbromide does not pass the blood-brain barrier, but no clinical data to this effect is available. Hyoscine butylbromide (1 mM) has been observed to interact with the choline transport (1.4 nM) in epithelial cells of human placenta in vitro.

Metabolism and elimination

Following oral administration of single doses in the range of 100 to 400 mg, the terminal elimination half-lives ranged from 6.2 to 10.6 hours. The main metabolic pathway is the hydrolytic cleavage of the ester bond. Orally administered hyoscine butylbromide is excreted in the faeces and in the urine. Studies in man show that 2 to 5% of radioactive doses is eliminated renally after oral, and 0.7 to 1.6% after rectal administration. Approximately 90% of recovered radioactivity can be found in the faeces after oral administration. The urinary excretion of hyoscine butylbromide is less than 0.1% of the dose. The mean apparent oral clearances after oral doses of 100 to 400 mg range from 881 to 1420 L/min, whereas the corresponding volumes of distribution for the same range vary from 6.13 to 11.3 × 10⁵ L, probably due to very low systemic availability. The metabolites excreted via the renal route bind poorly to the muscarinic receptors and are therefore not considered to contribute to the effect of the hyoscine butylbromide.

In limited reproductive toxicity studies hyoscine butylbromide showed no evidence of teratogenicity in rats at 200 mg/kg in the diet or in rabbits at 200 mg/kg by oral gavage or 50 mg/kg by subcutaneous injection. Fertility in the rat was not impaired at doses of up to 200 mg/kg in the diet.