Encapsulation of vegetable organogels for controlled delivery applications

The present study deals with the encapsulation of vegetable organogels in alginate microparticles (MPs). Mango butter (MB) and cocoa butter (CB) are natural organogels, which are being used in the preparation of pharmaceutical formulations. In addition to these, mustard oil (MO) was used as the control. The thermal stability of MB and CB can be enhanced by encapsulating them and can be used in oral drug-delivery formulations. Double emulsification method was followed for the preparation of MPs. By this method, spherical MPs were synthesized and the sphericity was confirmed by doing light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The size range of MPs was 107 +/- 53m, 79 +/- 43m, and 112 +/- 78m for MPs encapsulating MO, MB, and CB, respectively. The melting endotherms of MPs with MB and CB were in exact match with the melting points of MB and CB. This confirmed the existence of MB and CB within the MPs. The encapsulation of the vegetable organogels altered the release pattern of the drug, metronidazole. The drug release kinetics suggested that the release pattern followed the non-Fickian kinetics. The MPs were found to be hemocompatible in nature and have shown good mucoadhesive and swelling properties. Based on the preliminary results, it was suggested that the vegetable organogels can be encapsulated in alginate MPs and used as drug-delivery vehicles.