Compound Type
Vehicle
Last updated
The liquid or base a compound is dissolved or suspended in. As a compound type it labels entries that exist to carry something else, such as bacteriostatic water, saline or a cream base, rather than to act themselves. This site also records vehicle as a property of a preparation, so the same name appears both as a type of entry and as a field on other records.
Why it matters here
The vehicle sets both the concentration arithmetic and the beyond-use date: how much liquid is added decides the strength of each unit drawn, and whether it contains a preservative decides how long the vial remains usable after reconstitution.
What it is not
A vehicle is inactive in itself but not neutral for the product. Bacteriostatic water and sterile water are not interchangeable: one contains a preservative and tolerates repeated entry into the vial, the other does not. Substituting one for the other changes the beyond-use date, not just the label.
Also called
- vehicle
- carrier
- base
- diluent base
Diluent and carrier are the two words used in practice for the same thing. Base is the cosmetic-formulation equivalent, used for creams and gels.
Compounds carrying this term
None on file yet. This term is in the controlled vocabulary but no compound record currently uses it — which is a statement about our coverage, not about the term.