Compositions of fluorescent whitening agents

A composition comprising

• a) at least one water-soluble fluorescent whitening agent selected from a compound of the formula
• wherein
• R1, R2, R3 and R4 each, independently, represent —NH2, —OC1-C4alkyl, —Oaryl, —NHC1-C4alkyl, —N(C1-C4alkyl)2, —N(C1-C4alkyl)(C1-C4hydroxyalkyl), —NHC1-C4hydroxyalkyl, —N(C1-C4hydroxyalkyl)2, or —NHaryl, whereby aryl is phenyl, which may be unsubstituted or substituted by one or two sulphonic acid groups, —COOH, —COOC1-C4alkyl, —CONH2, —CONHC1-C4alkyl or by —CON(C1-C4alkyl)2, a morpholino, piperidino or pyrrolidino residue, —SC1-C4alkyl or aryl, or an amino acid or amino acid amide residue from which a hydrogen atom has been abstracted from the amino group and
• M represents hydrogen, an alkaline or alkaline earth metal, ammonium or ammonium that is mono-, di-, tri- or tetrasubstituted by C1-C4alkyl or C2-C4hydroxyalkyl,
• b) water-soluble polymer consisting of acrylamide only or acrylamide and other monomers, said monomers are selected from the group consisting of methacrylamide, N-alkyl acrylamides, N-alkyl methacrylamides, N-hydroxy acrylamides, N,N-dialkyl acrylamides, N,N-dialkyl methacrylamides, N,N-di(hydroxyalkyl) acrylamides, morpholino acrylamide, acrylic acid, methacrylic acid, itaconic acid, crotonic acid, 2-acrylamido-2-methylpropane sulphonic acid, allyl sulphonic acid and vinyl sulphonic acid, whereby the acidic monomers are in the form of their free acid or water-soluble salts, and the water-soluble polymer has an average (weight average) molecular weight of between 500 and 49,000,
• c) polyethylene glycol with a weight average molecular weight of between 500 and 6000 and
• d) water.