Introduction: Insulin is given by injection, because when administered orally, it would be destroyed by enzymes in the digestive system, hence only about 0.1% reaches blood circulation. The purpose of the present study was to use pH sensitive polyelectrolyte methyl methacrylate (MMA)/itaconic acid (IA) nanogels as carriers in an attempt to improve absorption of insulin administered orally. Methods: Insulin (Ins) was incorporated into the MMA/IA nanogels (NGs) using the polyelectrolyte complexation (PEC) method to form Ins/NGs-PEC. Several parameters, including Ins:NGs ratio, pH, incubation time and stirring rate were optimized during preparation of InsNGs-PEC. The prepared formulations were characterized in terms of particle size (PS), polydispersity index (PdI), zeta potential (ZP) and percent entrapment efficiency (% EE). Results: The optimized InF12 nanogels had a PS, PdI, ZP and %EE of 190.43 nm, 0.186, −16.70 mV and 85.20%, respectively. The InF12 nanogels were lyophilized in the presence of different concentrations of trehalose as cryoprotectant. The lyophilized InF12 containing 2%w/v trahalose (InF12-Tre2 nanogels) was chosen as final formulation which had a PS, PdI, ZP and %EE of 430.50 nm, 0.588, −16.50 mv and 82.10, respectively. The in vitro release of insulin from InF12-Tre2 nanogels in the SGF and SIF were 28.71% and 96.53%, respectively. The stability study conducted at 5±3°C for 3 months showed that lnF12-Tre2 nanogels were stable. The SDS-PAGE assay indicated that the primary structure of insulin in the lnF12-Tre2 nanogels was intact. The in-vivo study in the diabetic rats following oral administration of InF12-Tre2 nanogels at a dose of 100 IU/kg body weight reduced blood glucose level significantly to 51.10% after 6 hours compared to the control groups. Conclusions: The pH sensitive MMA/IA nanogels are potential carriers for oral delivery of insulin as they enhanced the absorption of the drug.

A study was conducted to evaluate residues of imidazolinone (IMI) in soil. Samples were taken from three Clearfield ® rice fields as IMI which have been used for six years. IMI herbicides (imazapic/imazapyr) were widely used in Clearfield ® rice soils. To date, few studies are available on the residues of these herbicides, especially in the context of Malaysian soil. Therefore, for this purpose, high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with UV detection was performed using a Zorbax stable bond C 18 (4.6 × 250 mm, 5 µm) column, with two mobile phases. The average percentage recovery for imazapyr and imazapic varied from 76%-107% and 71-77%, with 0.1-5 µg/ml fortification level, respectively. The limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) were found to be 1.05 and 4.09 for imazapic and 0.171 and 0.511 µg/ml for imazapyr respectively, in the top 15 cm. In the extracted soil sample, it was 0.19 µg/ml for imazapic and 0.04 µg/ml for imazapyr, respectively. Based on this study, a pre-harvest period of 40-60 day is suggested for rice crops after IMI application.