Effects of different stabilizers on colloidal properties and encapsulation efficiency of vitamin D3 loaded nano-niosomes

Abstract

The vitamin D3 loaded nano-niosomes were prepared by thin layer hydration and sonication methods. Influence of stabilizers (vitamin E acetate, polyethylene glycol and, cholesterol) on the different physicochemical properties of resulted niosomes including particle size distribution, zeta potential, encapsulation efficiency (EE%), antioxidant activities, turbidity, sedimentation, and pH were evaluated. The images of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) confirmed the results of the particle size data which were obtained using dynamic light scattering (DLS). Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis demonstrated the incorporation of vitamin D3 into niosomes. Incorporation of vitamin E-acetate and cholesterol to the niosome formulation (N2) caused a significant increase (P < 0.5) in niosome size. Addition of vitamin E-acetate caused a significant effect on increasing of encapsulation efficiency. The highest efficiency was observed in the samples containing cholesterol and polyethylene glycol. The niosome formulation containing 0.02 mmol vitamin E acetate with the size of 99 nm was selected as the optimal formulation. This formulation had the highest antioxidant capacity (56%), the lowest pH changes and high encapsulation efficiency (92.9%).