Enhanced potato tuber penetration of carboxin via ultradeformable liposomes

Abstract

For the first time, a nanoformulated fungicide carboxin was obtained to solve the problem of infection of potato tubers with fungi spores. Encapsulation of carboxin in ultra-deformable liposomes protects it from degradation by sunlight, increases solubility in water and penetration through potato skin. Two fluorescent probes, rhodamine B and fluorescein, were used for optimization of original composition and for visualization of the transfersome localization in potato tubers, respectively. Carboxin was encapsulated in lipid formulations with further evaluation of encapsulation efficiency, substrate release rate in vitro, and penetration through the Strat-M® membrane using Franz cells. Using fluorescent microscopy, it was revealed that transfersomes penetrate through the periderm and enter cortex of potato tubers. By the extraction it was shown that potato tubers weighing 100 g included 32 mg of carboxin after the transfersome treatment. The inclusion of carboxin in transfersomes made it possible to increase the maximum concentration of carboxin in water from 0.57 mmol L−1 to 2.8–3.8 mmol L−1, i.e., 5–7 times.