Posted by Although cross-linking with epichlorohydrin (EPC) is a process studied long time ago, however its use as a gastric solubility enhancer for curcumin has been studied for the first time. The synthesized polymer was well characterized by FT-IR, SEM, XRD, TGA and particle size analysis. The polymer enhanced the water solubility of curcumin by ∼ 800–850 times and the gastric solubility was increased by ∼ 1400–1500 times and acted as a sustained release system as verified by the pepsin inhibition studies which makes it a potential drug carrier for gastric specific drug targeting that can be a promising treatment for gastritis and gastric ulcers.
The particle size increased upto 6–7 µm with a narrow distribution of PDI (poly-dispersity index) i.e. 0.0086 indicating the mono-disperse behaviour of the polymer. The low PDI value makes it an acceptable drug carrier
Fig. Solubility studies of (a)curcumin (b) curcumin- β-cd and (c) curcumin- epc- β-cd (i) in water and (ii) in simulated gastric fluid.
The featured image demonstrates pepsin inhibition for (a) pure curcumin, (b) curcumin- β-cd and (c) curcumin- epc- β-cd.
Priyanka Arya, Manishita R. Sharma, Anjaneyulu Bendi, N. Raghav (2024) Enhanced curcumin solubility in epichlorohydrin engineered β-Cyclodextrin copolymer for gastric maladies. Journal of Molecular Liquids 409, 125434. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molliq.2024.125434