The dissolution behaviour of slightly water-soluble embonic acid salts of ampicillin and amoxycillin was studied quantitatively as a function of solution pH (1.15-8.00) using the rotating disk method combined with reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography. The dissolution rate of ampicillin embonate was greater than that of amoxycillin embonate at all pH values investigated. The graphs of pH-intrinsic rate of dissolution of the antibiotics from the salts were U-shaped, the minimum being close to the respective isoelectric points of the parent antibiotics. Embonic acid was not detectable below pH 5; above pH 5 the dissolution rate of embonic acid increased as a function of pH.