Desflurane has the lowest partition coefficient at 37 degrees Celsius of 0.42.
Three factors are responsible for anesthetic uptake: blood solubility, alveolar blood flow, and the partial pressure difference between alveolar gas and venous blood.
Insoluble agents (nitrous oxide and desflurane) are taken up by blood less quickly and alveolar concentration therefore rises faster, leading theoretically to a faster inhalational induction. In practice, desflurane is irritating to the upper airways, and nitrous has a very high MAC%, so neither is used.
The solubility coefficient is a ratio of the concentration of anesthetic gas at steady state. A solubility coefficient of 0.47 for example suggests that blood has 47% of the capacity for nitrous oxide as alveolar gas.
Nitrous oxide (0.47), isoflurane (1.4), and sevoflurane (0.65) have higher partition coefficients than desflurane.
References:
"Clinical Pharmacology" Morgan and Mikhail's Clinical Anesthesiology 5th Edition
