Abstract
The medicinal applications of curcumin, the major component of Curcuma longa, are limited by its poor solubility and low oral bioavailability. In order to overcome
this limitation, a method to produce nanocapsules of chitosan loaded with curcumin
was developed. Three different molecular weight and deacetylation degree chitosan
polymers were used in the formulation in order to prepare curcumin-loaded nanocapsules
(mass ratio 1 : 1.4). The best results were achieved using chitosan-Bi with a molecular
weight of 710 000 Da. A bimodal distribution was observed in samples; moreover, chitosan-Bi
produced the lowest particle size (197 nm). The entrapment efficacy of all chitosan
nanocapsules produced reached values between 75 and 92 %. Their rate of drug release
at different pH levels (2.0 and 7.4) showed a fast onset of curcumin release. Swiss
mice were used to determine oral and total bioavailability of the new curcumin-loaded
nanocapsules. Remarkably, the bioavailability of curcumin nanoformulated increased
9-fold compared with no formulated curcumin. These nanocapsules have the ability to
cross the blood-brain barrier, and its production is an easy to scale-up procedure
using nontoxic materials.
Key words
Curcuma longa
- Zingiberaceae - curcumin - chitosan - nanocapsules - cross-linking - drug carrier
