Pivampicillin hydrochloride is a kind of broad spectrum antibiotics with bactericidal action, and is used in many countries, although it has bitter taste, unpleasant odour and side effects of irritating gastric mucosa, nausea, penicillin allergy, etc. For the improvement of such side effects of pivampicillin hydrochloride, microcapsules, with wall of ethylcellulose, have been prepared by coacervation method. The shape was observed through the scanning electron microscope, the release of the drug into an aqueous medium was studied and the effects of core: ethylcellulose ratio were interpreted as well as making sensory evaluation of taste and odour. There was decreasing trend in dissolution rate of the drug with the increase of core: ethylcellulose ratios, and the smaller microcapsules released their contents more rapidly. A linear relationship was established between the amount of ethylcellulose and the time for 60% release of the drug, and the release pattern was found to have similar characteristics to the release of the drug from an insoluble porous matrix. The release of the drug in the artificial intestinal fluids (pH 6.8) was found to be similar to that in water, while the release in the artificial gastric juice (pH 1.2) was slightly slower. Bioavailability of microcapsule was compared with that of pivampicillin hydrochloride in rabbits using serum concentration and urinary excretion measurements. Microcapsule gave showed slightly higher serum level than pivampicillin hydrochloride from 2 hours after administration, while no significant difference was observed in the accumulated urinary excretion rate between pivampicillin hydrochloride and microcapsule. The ulcer index of pivampicillin hydrochloride administered group was 2.6, and microcapsule administered group was 1.5, while control group was 0.8. Therefore it may be concluded that microencapsulation of pivampicillin hydrochloride is a useful pharmaceutical approach to protect the gastrointestinal tract from being injured by direct contact of pivampicillin hydrochloride without any significant difference of bioavailability.