Curcumin loaded nanostructured lipid carriers: In vitro digestion and release studies

This study aimed to design NLCs to investigate formulation composition contribution on curcumin-NLC characteristics by CCD, while its stability, digestion and release in SGM was evaluated. Tween 80 and pluronic F167 were employed as surfactants, and SA and CT selected as appropriate lipids. Curcumin-NLC were prepared by microemulsion-sonication technique, the lipids ratio (SA/CT), surfactants ratio (tween 80/pluronic F167) and curcumin to lipid ratio were selected as independent variables and their effects on NLC physical characteristics such as PS and DL (%) were studied. The optimized curcumin-NLC formulation was determined relying upon statistical analysis which contained lipids ratio of 63.2/37.6, surfactant ratios of 34/66 and drug/lipid ratio of 33/100 and had particle size of 225.8 +/- 2.3 nm and DL (%) of 49.9 +/- 0.39%. Particle size and surface morphology of optimized curcumin-NLC formulation were characterized by FE-SEM and PCS. The interactions and the crystallinity of both curcumin and lipids were investigated by FT-IR, DSC and XRD analyses. The findings successfully confirm that 41% of the curcumin released from NLC during 2 h. Afterwards, the curcumin release kinetic studies were applied to find best fitting model. The results revealed acceptable NLC and curcumin stability (>= 95%) in SGM up to 2 h by in vitro digestion assay. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.