The Study of in vitro and in vivo Effects of Concurrent Administration of Paracetamol and Zinc on the Antibacterial Activity of Ciprofloxacin

Abstract

Concurrent administration of more than one drug is a common practice in medical science and in such
case one drug may affect the pharmacology of another drug. Ciprofloxacin is a commonly used antibiotic in
Bangladesh and frequently prescribed with paracetamol and zinc salt for concomitant use in patients suffering from
infections. Therefore, the interaction of ciprofloxacin with paracetamol and zinc salt was studied in vitro at pH 1.2,
6.8 and 7.4 which are related to gastric, intestinal juices and blood environment, respectively. In vitro evaluation of
ciprofloxacin complexes with paracetamol and zinc was carried on several gram positive and gram negative
microorganisms by disc diffusion method. The in vivo effect of the complexes was assessed by determining the
plasma concentration in mice by spectroscopic method. It was observed that in the in vitro study paracetamol and
zinc has insignificant effect on the antibacterial activity of ciprofloxacin although zinc itself showed some
antibacterial activity; and in the in vivo study it was found that zinc sulphate reduced the bioavailability of
ciprofloxacin HCl.