Desenvolvimento de micropartículas estruturadas contendo curcumina

Abstract

Curcumin is a natural yellow – orange dye extracted from Curcuma longa. It is a polyphenol with important biological effects since it acts as a potent antioxidant, inhibits the formation of cancer cells and also has anti-inflammatory effect. The use of curcumin as a dye in the food industry is limited due its low water solubility, sensibility to heat treatment, light, presence of metal ions, enzymes, ascorbic acid and others. Encapsulation techniques have been emphasized in the literature as an effective method to improve its technological applicability. In this study curcumin was encapsulated in polycaprolactone (PCL) microparticles obtained by emulsification/solvent evaporation technique and coated with transglutaminase crosslinked gelatin. Analyzes were performed to characterize the microparticles which presented spherical shape and encapsulation efficiency of (81 ± 13)%. In addition, the curcumin release profiles from uncoated PCL microparticles and gelatin crosslinked-PCL microparticles (1.96 and 5.9% of transglutaminase) were evaluated. Uncoated PCL microparticles showed a release rate of 4.3 mg.mL-1.min-1 whereas the PCL microparticles coated with gelatin crosslinked with 1.96% of transglutaminase showed liberation rate of 3.2 mg.mL-1.min-1. Results indicate that the technique is viable to modify the curcumin release rate from the microcapsules.