Title: gastric emptying rate
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - gastric emptying rate
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.15190
Status: current

Definition
Pace at which a drug along with the stomach content leaves and enters the duodenum.

Notes
1) Often, gastric emptying rate is also expressed as gastric emptying time.
2) Gastric emptying rate (or time) is expressed typically in units of time or \(t_{1/2}\). It is also expressed as the amount of a given substance emptied per the total mass in the stomach, at a given time; or as the amount emptied, at a given time, of a given substance.
3) Since most drugs are optimally absorbed from the small intestine, the onset of drug action depends on the gastric emptying rate. Thus, the rate of gastric emptying determines the timing but not the extent of oral drug absorption.
4) The gastric emptying rate depends on several factors, e.g., stomach calorie content, \(\rm{pH}\), hunger, anxiety, the nature of the drugs and body posture. High-calorie foods (e.g., fats) usually retard gastric emptying and delay drug absorption.

Related Term
- oral drug: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/15145

Source
- PAC, 2009, 81, 971. 'Glossary of terms related to pharmaceutics (IUPAC Recommendations 2009)' on page 985 (https://doi.org/10.1351/PAC-REC-04-10-14)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/15190/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/15190/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/15190/xml

Citation: Citation: 'gastric emptying rate' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.15190
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Accessed: 2026-05-13T19:49:48+00:00