Encapsulation of Hydrophobic Apigenin into Small Unilamellar Liposomes Coated with Chitosan Through Ethanol Injection and Spray Drying

Abstract

Despite the multiple health benefits, natural flavonoid apigenin has poor aqueous solubility that restricts its delivery in foods. This study investigated the potential of spray-dried chitosan-coated liposomes prepared from scalable methods for the food industry as the delivery carriers for apigenin. Apigenin-loaded small unilamellar liposomes produced from ethanol injection had an encapsulation efficiency of 74.88 ± 5.31%. They were electrostatically stabilised via chitosan coating (0.25% w/v) and spray-dried. Spray-dried chitosan-coated apigenin liposomes (SCAL) exhibited the following powder characteristics: yield 66.62 ± 3.08%, moisture content 4.33 ± 0.56%, water activity 0.2242 ± 0.0548, particle size 10.97 ± 1.55 μm, nearly spherical morphology with wrinkles and dents under microscopic observation. Compared with the unencapsulated apigenin, SCAL demonstrated improved aqueous solubility (10.22 ± 0.18 mg/L), higher antioxidant capacity, and stability against simulated gastrointestinal digestion. The chitosan coating gave a slower in-vitro release of apigenin in SCAL (77.0 ± 6.2%) than that of uncoated apigenin liposomes (94.0 ± 5.3%) at 12 h. The apigenin release kinetics from SCAL could be represented by the Korsmeyer-Peppas model (R2 = 0.971). These findings suggest that SCAL could be a promising delivery system of apigenin for functional food applications.

Formulation of silymarin surface modified vesicles: In vitro characterization to cell viability assessment

“…Both mixtures were kept on the magnetic stirrer for 24 h with continuous stirring. Finally, the chitosan silymarin vesicles (F3C1 and F3C2) were collected and characterized for vesicle size, polydispersibility index, surface charge and encapsulation efficiency ( Ang et al, 2023 ) .…”

Mitochondria-Targeted Lipid Nanoparticles Loaded with Rotenone as a New Approach for the Treatment of Oncological Diseases

“…Interestingly, based on the diffusion release exponent values (n), the mechanisms of the ROT release from the PC/Chol/IA-n(OH) and PC/Chol/TPPB-n liposomes were different. The PC/Chol/IA-n(OH) liposomes were characterized by Fickian diffusion (n < 0.45), while for the PC/Chol/TPPB-n liposomes, the release mechanism changed to non-Fickian diffusion (0.45 < n < 0.89) [79,80], which means that in the case of liposomes modified with triphenylphosphonium surfactants, a synergistic effect of diffusion of the drug substance and the dissolution of the phospholipid bilayer of liposomes is observed during the release [81]. The absorption spectra of ROT for all the systems are shown in Figures S6-S11.…”