What term describes drugs that are highly water-soluble and dissolve well in water?
Answer
Hydrophilic
Substances that exhibit a strong affinity for water and dissolve readily in it are chemically classified as hydrophilic. This characteristic contrasts sharply with lipophilic substances, which prefer environments rich in fats or lipids and consequently dissolve poorly in water. Being hydrophilic is a key requirement for drugs that need to dissolve in bodily fluids like blood or gastrointestinal fluids to achieve systemic distribution. This definition establishes a primary category for predicting how a drug will behave in an aqueous biological system.
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