Chloroform

Styrene (>99%) and all the para-substituted styrene derivatives (4-methylstyrene, 4-fluorostyrene), α-methylstyrene, Palladium (II) chloride (99%) and α,α’-dibromo-p-xylene were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich. 2,4,6-tri(4-pyridyl)−1,3,5-triazine was purchased from TCI Chemicals Pvt. Ltd. Solvents (dichloromethane, chloroform, dimethylformamide, methanol, acetone, n-hexane, ethyl acetate, diethyl ether) were purchased from SD Fine Chemicals. Analytical reagent (AR) grade solvents were used for chemical reactions and HPLC grade solvents were used for spectroscopic measurements. Other chemical reagents like hydrochloric acid, sodium bicarbonate etc. were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich. Heavy water (D₂O; 99.9 atom %D) was procured from Sigma-Aldrich and used as supplied for the chemical reactions as well as for the NMR measurements.

The pilocarpine HCl was kindly received as a gift sample by M/s Zydus Cadila Health Care Ltd. (Ahmedabad, India). Sorbitan monolaurate (span 20), sorbitan monosterate (span 60), sorbitan monooleate (span 80), cholesterol, locust bean gum and carbopol 934 were procured from Loba Chemie Pvt. Ltd. (Mumbai, India). Isopropanol, methanol, acetone, chloroform, boric acid, sodium hydroxide, sodium bicarbonate, potassium chloride, glacial acetic acid, magnesium, sodium chloride, calcium chloride dehydrate, potassium dihydrogen phosphate and disodium hydrogen phosphate were purchased from were purchased from S.D Fine chemicals (Mumbai, India). Double distilled water was used throughout the study.