Title: compartmental analysis
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - compartmental analysis
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.CT06818
Status: current

Definition
Mathematical process leading to a model of transport of a substance in terms of compartments and rate constants, usually taking the form \[C=A\ \rm{e}^{-\alpha\ t}+B\ \rm{e}^{-\beta \ t}\rm{...}\] where each exponential term represents one experiment. \(C\) is the substance concentration; \(A\), \(B\),… are proportionality constants; \(\alpha \), \(\beta \),… are rate constants; and \(t\) is time.

Related Term
- substance concentration: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/S06072

Source
- PAC, 2004, 76, 1033. 'Glossary of terms used in toxicokinetics (IUPAC Recommendations 2003)' on page 1045 (https://doi.org/10.1351/pac200476051033)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/CT06818/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/CT06818/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/CT06818/xml

Citation: Citation: 'compartmental analysis' 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.CT06818
License: The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) for individual terms.
Collection: If you are interested in licensing the Gold Book for commercial use, please contact the IUPAC Executive Director at executivedirector@iupac.org .
Disclaimer: The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using.
Accessed: 2026-05-12T08:40:06+00:00