Pharmaceutical wastewater may contain high-value pharmaceutically active compounds such as amlodipine. A hollow-fiber supported liquid membrane (HFSLM) process was developed and applied in the pretreatment of pharmaceutical wastewater for (S)-amlodipine recovery. The HFSLM system contained O,O'-dibenzoyl-(2S,3S)-tartaric acid ((+)-DBTA) in the liquid membrane phase and beta-cyclodextrin in the stripping phase. The effects of various chemical parameters, including the concentration of the chiral selector in the stripping phase, as well as the type of organic diluent and the carrier concentration in the membrane, were also investigated. Several diluents - hexane, 1-decanol, chlorobenzene, benzene, dichloromethane, ethylene dichloride, and chloroform - with different polarity indexes, from 0.1 to 4.1, were used. The results found that the polarity of the diluents was the main factor influencing the extraction performance and stability of the liquid membrane. Decreasing the polarity of the diluent could prolong membrane stability, but the percentages of extraction and stripping decreased as well. The longest lifetime (150 min) was obtained by using 1-decanol, with a polarity index of 1.8, as a diluent. (c) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.