Development of microencapsulation systems for both oral and topical drug deliveries

Abstract

Owing to the advance in biotechnology, conventional drug dosage forms are being supplemented by versatile approaches of drug delivery. The development of both oral and transdermal drug delivery systems using microencapsulation technology would offer several possible benefits over the conventional drug delivery routes. Therefore, this thesis investigates the development, characterization and applications of microencapsulated drugs for both oral and topical deliveries. The optimal chitosan-based microcapsules containing calendula oil were prepared by a simple coacervation method. The feasibility of both oral and topical applications of chitosan-based microcapsules was further tested using hydrocortisone succinic acid (HSA), 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) as well as phyllanthin respectively. The optimal agar/gelatin-based microcapsules were also developed to tackle the use of toxic crosslinker formaldehyde in gelatin microencapsulation system. Both oral and topical applications were demonstrated using berberine and gallic acid loaded microcapsules respectively. The development of drug containing microcapsules was demonstrated to be an efficienct deliverable tool for both oral and topical applications. Medical textiles, the textile materials which are used for medical and healthcare applications, receive great attention in textile and clothing industries. Among various methods, microencapsulation technology is of high potential to develop the medical textiles with controlled release property of biomedical agents for different therapeutic and healthcare purposes. In this study, a chitosan-based (oil-in-water) and an agar/gelatin-based (water-in-oil) microencapsulation systems containing berberine were applied to cotton fabrics to provide an anti-S. aureus activity for textile materials. After 20 washing cycles, the cotton fabrics with agar/gelatin-based microcapsules containing berberine still exhibited the anti-S. aureus activity. However, the chitosan-based system did not show any growth inhibition towards S. aureus, only the contact areas showed. [diagram : see article file for the details of the abstract]