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Article history: The encapsulation of ascorbyl palmitate (AP) in chitosan particles was carried out by droplet formation via
Received 8 July 2009 an oil-in-water emulsion, followed by droplet solidification via ionic gelation using sodium triphosphate
Received in revised form 13 October 2009 pentabasic (TPP) as a cross-linking agent. The success of AP encapsulation was confirmed by FT-IR, UV–vis
Accepted 11 November 2009
spectrophotometry, TGA, and XRD techniques. The obtained AP-loaded chitosan particles were spherical
Available online 18 November 2009
in shape with an average diameter of 30–100 nm as observed by SEM and TEM. Loading capacity (LC)
and encapsulation efficiency (EE) of AP in the nanoparticles were about 8–20% and 39–77%, respectively,
Keywords:
when the initial AP concentration was in the range of 25–150% (w/w) of chitosan. Augmentation of the
Chitosan
Ascorbyl palmitate
initial AP concentration led to an increase of LC and a reduction of EE. The amount of AP released from
Encapsulation the nanoparticles in ethanol and tris buffer (pH∼8.0) increased with increasing LC and decreasing TPP
Nanoparticles concentration.
Emulsion © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Ionic cross-linking
0927-7765/$ – see front matter © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.colsurfb.2009.11.007
R. Yoksan et al. / Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces 76 (2010) 292–297 293
2.1. Materials
AP-loaded chitosan nanoparticles were prepared according to a 2.4. Determination of loading capacity and encapsulation
method modified from the ones described by Ko et al. [9] and Ajun efficiency of AP
et al. [16]. However, soybean oil was used instead of CH2 Cl2 for
preparation of the oil phase in order to avoid toxicity of the chemi- The content of AP loaded in chitosan nanoparticles was deter-
cal residue. Briefly, aqueous and oil phase solutions were produced. mined by TGA/DTG (derivative thermal gravimetric) technique.
Chitosan solution (1.5% (w/v)) was prepared by agitating chitosan The amount of loaded AP per 100 g of sample—loading capac-
in an aqueous acetic acid solution (1% (v/v)) at ambient tempera- ity (LC) and the amount of loaded AP per 100 g of initial AP (in
ture (ca. 25–28 ◦ C) overnight. Tween 60 (0.45 g) was subsequently feed)—encapsulation efficiency (EE) were thus calculated from Eqs.
added to the solution (40 mL) and stirred at ambient temperature (1) and (2), respectively:
until the mixture was homogeneous. Soybean oil (10 mL) and Span weight of loaded AP
60 (0.05 g) were mixed at 50 ◦ C for 2 h and then cooled to ambi- %LC = × 100 (1)
weight of sample
ent temperature. AP was added to the oil mixture and agitated to
achieve a homogeneous oil phase solution.
weight of loaded AP
The oil–AP fraction (10 mL) was gradually dropped into the %EE = × 100 (2)
weight of initial AP
aqueous chitosan solution (40 mL) during homogenization at a
speed of 16,000 rpm for 2 min to obtain an oil-in-water emulsion. 2.5. Study on in vitro release of AP from chitosan nanoparticles
TPP solution (0.5% (w/v), 40 mL) was then slowly dropped into
the agitated emulsion. Agitation was continuously performed for Ethanol and tris buffer (pH ∼8.4) were used as model media
30 min. The formed particles were collected by centrifugation at for an in vitro AP release study. Wet samples (10 mg) and media
10,000 × g for 15 min at 20 ◦ C, and subsequently washed several (1.2 mL) were placed in a microtube and incubated at ambient
times with Tween 60 solution (0.1% (v/v)) and water. The particles temperature. At sampling time, the incubated mixture was cen-
were dried at ambient temperature under reduced pressure and trifuged and 100 L of supernatant was collected. Evaluation of the
stored in dry condition at 25 ◦ C. Weight ratios of chitosan to AP amount of AP released was determined using a spectrophotome-
(CTS:AP) of 1:0, 1:0.25, 1:0.50, 1:1.00 and 1:1.50 were used for the ter at a wavelength of 247 nm. An equal volume of fresh media was
present study. then replaced in the mixture, and the same procedure was repeated
for the subsequent sampling. These in vitro release studies were
2.3. Characterization of nanoparticles performed in triplicate for each of the samples.
FT-IR spectra were obtained by using a Thermo Nicolet Nexus 3. Results and discussion
670 spectrometer (Thermo Electron Corp., Madison WI, USA) with
32 scans at a resolution of 4 cm−1 over a wavenumber range of 3.1. Characteristics of AP-loaded chitosan nanoparticles
4000–400 cm−1 . XRD patterns were recorded over a 2 range of
5–50◦ by a JEOL JDX-3530 (JEOL Ltd., Tokyo, Japan) with a step angle AP-loaded chitosan particles were prepared by a two-step pro-
of 0.04 ◦ C/min. A Mettler-Toledo TGA/SDTA 851e thermogravimet- cess. The first step involved the formation of oil droplets (including
ric analyzer (Columbus OH, USA) was used, with a N2 flow rate of AP) by an oil-in-water emulsion. The second step was the solid-
60 mL/min and a heating rate of 10 ◦ C/min from 30 to 600 ◦ C. The Z- ification of the formed droplets by an ionic gelation of chitosan,
average diameter of samples was determined at 20 ◦ C by a Malvern enveloping the oil droplets, with TPP.
Zetasizer (model 3600, Malvern Instruments Ltd., Worcestershire, FT-IR spectra of the obtained particles are presented in Fig. 1.
UK) equipped with a He–Ne laser operating at 4.0 mW and 633 nm In general, chitosan flakes show characteristic peaks at 3382
with a fixed scattering angle of 90◦ . SEM analysis of the products (–OH and –NH2 stretching), 2886–2854 (–CH stretching), 1634
was carried out using a JEOL JSM LV-5600 at an operating voltage (amide I), 1565 (amide II), 1062 (C–O–C) and 887 (pyranose ring)
of 15 kV. Transmission electron micrographs were observed by a (Fig. 1a). For chitosan particles, the peak of amide II (–NH2 bending)
294 R. Yoksan et al. / Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces 76 (2010) 292–297
Fig. 3. (A) TGA and (B) DTG thermograms of (a) AP, (b) chitosan particles and (c)–(d) AP-loaded chitosan particles with different CTS to AP weight ratios: (c) 1:1.00 and (d)
1:1.50.
R. Yoksan et al. / Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces 76 (2010) 292–297 295
Fig. 4. XRD patterns of (a) chitosan, (b) chitosan particles; and (c) AP-loaded chi-
tosan particles with CTS to AP weight ratio of 1:1.00.
Table 1
Loading capacity and encapsulation efficiency of AP in AP-loaded chitosan
nanoparticles.
Fig. 7. TEM micrographs at 80 kV of (a) chitosan particles (100,000×) and (b) AP-loaded chitosan particles with CTS to AP weight ratio of 1:1.00 (100,000×).
[10], respectively. The EE was about 39–77%. This value decreased was rapid, especially in the case of tris buffer (Fig. 9). The mecha-
with an increase of the initial AP content, a result which could be nism of AP release at this stage could be explained by the diffusion of
due to the saturation of AP loading into chitosan nanoparticles. AP localized at the particle surface, which might be involved with
the concentration gradient. The diffusion of AP was enhanced at
3.4. In vitro release of AP from chitosan nanoparticles high pH due to the deprotonation of chitosan; as a result, the elec-
trostatic interaction between ammonium ions on chitosan chains
The release profiles of AP from AP-loaded chitosan nanoparti- and phosphoric groups of TPP molecules weakened or disappeared,
cles were investigated in vitro at ambient condition for 5 h. The and AP was eventually released very quickly (Scheme 1). In the
media used were ethanol and tris buffer (pH∼8.0) because AP dis- second stage, the release rate was relatively slow, i.e., almost zero
solved well in both solvents. The solubility of AP was restricted in (Figs. 8 and 9). This might be due to the inability of ethanol and
phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) (pH∼7.4) and citric acid/trisodium tris buffer to break or destroy the nanoparticles, resulting in no
citrate buffers (pH∼3.0); as a result, the amount of AP could not be additional release of AP at this stage.
determined by a spectrophotometer. The release of AP in ethanol reached a plateau within 1 h, while
The amount of AP released at different times was measured by reaching a plateau in tris buffer required a shorter time (20 min).
a spectrophotometer at a wavelength of ∼247 nm. The release pro- This might be a result of the weakening of electrostatic interac-
files of AP in ethanol (Fig. 8) and tris buffer (Fig. 9) were similar. tion between the cationic material and anionic TPP, which caused
There were two stages of AP release, depending on the release rate both faster release and shorter release periods, as mentioned above.
(the slope of the release profile). For the initial stage (i.e., the first However, the amount of AP released in ethanol was higher than that
hour for ethanol and the first 20 min for tris buffer), the release rate in tris buffer, which might be due to the superior solubility of AP in
ethanol.
Fig. 8. In vitro release profiles of AP in ethanol at ambient temperature from AP- Fig. 9. In vitro release profiles of AP in tris buffer at ambient temperature from
loaded chitosan particles prepared by using different TPP concentrations: (a)–(d) AP-loaded chitosan nanoparticles prepared by using CTS to AP weight ratio of
0.5%, (e) 2% and (f) 4%; and different CTS to AP weight ratios: (a) 1:0.25, (b) 1:0.50, 1:1.50, and different TPP concentrations: (a) 0.5%, (b) 2% and (c) 4%. Data are the
(c) 1:1.00 and (d)–(f) 1:1.50. Data are the mean ± standard deviation (n = 3). mean ± standard deviation (n = 3).
R. Yoksan et al. / Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces 76 (2010) 292–297 297
Scheme 1. Schematic drawing representing the loss of cross-linked structure via electrostatic interaction between ammonium ions on chitosan chains and phosphoric groups
of TPP molecules (a) due to the deprotonation of chitosan in tris buffer (pH ∼ 8) (b).
The amount of AP released in ethanol was influenced by the versity, Thailand (AI-01-50); and the International Laboratories
amount of AP entrapped. The high LC provided a fast release rate Corp., Ltd., Thailand.
and a concomitantly high amount of released AP (Fig. 8a-d). This
might be explained by a wider AP concentration gap between Appendix A. Supplementary data
the polymeric particles and the release medium, which caused a
higher diffusion rate [10]. The concentration of TPP also affected Supplementary data associated with this article can be found, in
the amount of released AP. AP was more easily released when TPP the online version, at doi:10.1016/j.colsurfb.2009.11.007.
concentration was low (Figs. 8d–f and 9). This could be a result of
low density structure, which is in agreement with previous studies References
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This work has been supported by the Thailand Research Fund
(IRPUS/I250B02002); the Faculty of Agro-Industry, Kasetsart Uni-