Obtenção e caracterização de micropartículas estruturadas de biopolímeros contendo curcumina

Abstract

Curcumin is a yellow-orange natural dye extracted from the rhizome of Curcuma longa L., which, according to studies, has several biological properties as antioxidant, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and antimutagenic. However, its application as a natural colorant in the food industry is often difficult due to their unfavorable features, for example, insolubility in water, sensitive to heat treatment, light, presence of enzymes, ascorbic acid and metal ions. Then, studies have been conducted in order to find an alternative to improve the availability and technological application of curcumin. The microencapsulation technique of this component, presents itself as an opportunity to facilitate their application. In this work, curcumin was encapsulated in microparticles polycaprolactone (PCL), poly (hydroxybutyrate-co-hydroxyvalerate (PHBV) and blends of PCL and PHBV (1:1). Through emulsification technique/solvent evaporation were performed analysis characterization of the microparticles, which showed spherical shape for the PCL and irregular shapes in formulations with PHBV, and improved encapsulation efficiency for the PCL (80±2)% of that for the PHBV (47±3)%. The thermal characterization analyzes (DSC) and FTIR showed that the PCL and PHBV polymers are immiscible and curcumin was actually encapsulated. Also, we evaluated curcumin release profiles of microparticles, and PCL microparticles with an initial release rate 7*10-5 mgcur/(mL.min) and PHBV microparticles with an initial release rate of 3*10-4 mgcur/(mL.min). The results indicate that the technique is viable for further tests in the food formulation.