Aqueous miconazole (MCZ) aggregates were solubilized and/or colloidally stabilized by bilayer-forming synthetic amphiphiles such as dioctadecyldimethylammonium bromide (DODAB) or sodium dihexadecylphosphate (DHP) dispersions. Particle sizing, light absorption and scattering from drug particles, zeta-potential determination, and drug aggregation kinetics from turbidity changes in the presence or absence of lipid dispersions were obtained over a range of drug and lipid concentrations. The very low solubility of MCZ in water made possible the determination of size distributions for drug particles in water and comparison to those in the presence of DODAB or DHP nanosized bilayer fragments or entire and closed bilayer vesicles. Large drug aggregates disappeared upon incubation with nanosized bilayer fragments produced by ultrasonic dispersion with tip. Light-absorption spectra for MCZ in a poor solvent (water), in a good organic solvent (methanol), and in different lipid dispersions showed that solubilization depended on the presence of bilayer fragments. MCZ was poorly soluble in dispersions formed of closed bilayers (vesicles) of DODAB or DHP in the gel state and in phosphatidylcholine (PC) vesicles in the liquid-crystalline state. Increased hydrophobicity at the borders of bilayer fragments explained MCZ solubilization. At [MCZ] > 0.4 mM, kinetics of drug aggregation, zeta-potential measurements, and size minimization were obtained upon addition of minute amounts of oppositely charged bilayer fragments ([DHP] = 0.05 mM), making possible determination of a remarkable stabilizing effect of drug particles by coverage with anionic bilayer fragments. High drug colloid stability in the presence of charged bilayer fragments was achieved by two different means: (1) at large drug concentrations and small concentrations of bilayer fragments, coverage of large drug particles with bilayer fragments; (2) at large amounts of bilayer fragments, drug solubilization in its monomeric form at the borders of bilayer fragments. Inexpensive, synthetic bilayer fragments offered a large area of hydrophobic nanosurfaces dispersed and electrostatically stabilized in water, opening new prospects for drug solubilization and colloid stabilization of insoluble drug particles. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved.