Water Soluble Octenyl Succinylated Cassava Starch-Curcumin Nanoformulation With Enhanced Bioavailability and Anticancer Potential

The present study reports the preparation and evaluation of a water soluble octenyl succinylated cassava starch-curcumin nanoformulation with enhanced bioavailability and anticancer potential. The major drawback of curcumin as a bioactive compound is its poor aqueous solubility and the resultant low bioavailability. In this study, curcumin has been incorporated in octenyl succinate cassava starch by a wet grinding method and the product is characterized by Fourier transform infra red spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), dynamic light scattering (DLS), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses. The OSA starch loaded nanocurcumin is found to be non-toxic to L929 cells, but shows anti-cancer potential to HeLa cells. A significant enhancement in cellular uptake also can be achieved for the OSA starch loaded nanocurcumin as revealed by fluorescence microscopy. The in vitro release of curcumin from the nanostarch matrix is more controlled at simulated intestinal pH than that at gastric pH. Pharmacokinetic study shows that bioavailability of nanocurcumin is increased by about 71.27%.