Ph driven encapsulation of curcumin in self-assembled niosome curcuminoid physical characterizations, encapsulation efficiency & stability study
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Date
2018-06
Authors
Saravanan Reddy Kalidas
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Abstract
Curcumin is an antioxidant with various healing properties but possesses
limitation due to its poor solubility and reduced bioavailability as pH influences greatly
on curcumin. Niosomes are composed of non-ionic surfactants and act as transport
vesicle for drug delivery to overcome the limitations of curcumin as a potential drug.
The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of different pH on the
physiochemical properties of curcumin-loaded niosomes. The niosomes were
composed of 1:1 mole ratio of Span 60: Tween 60 as vesicle-forming agents and
prepared using thin film hydration method. The influence of formulation on vesicle
size, entrapment efficiency (EE) and stability of curcumin-loaded niosomes was
investigated. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed that niosomes at pH
3 and 7 had a spherical shape and uniform distribution, while pH 9 produced
irregularly shaped niosomes. The results showed that the incorporation of curcumin
into niosome at pH 3 yielded vesicles with larger sizes (394.07 ± 17.35 nm to 556.37
± 28.44 nm) compared to other pH formulation before extrusion. However, after
extrusion the size has been significantly reduced to smaller sizes (150.30 ± 2.29 nm to
156.30 ± 2.17 nm). Furthermore, the EE of curcumin niosomes at pH 3 was highest
(75.23%) than that of niosomes at pH 7 and 9. The zeta potential at pH 3 was also
remarkably lower than pH 7 and 9, yet decreases gradually over time. After 28 days
storage, it was found that freezer storage (-4C) had the highest stability with less
reduction in EE. The size of all the formulation increased and started to aggregate
when the temperature and storage period increases indicating lower stability at a higher
temperature.