Insight into the physicochemical properties and bioactivities of therapeutic deep eutectic solvents based on matrine and fatty acids

Abstract

• THEDESs based on matrine and fatty acids were developed. • Physicochemical properties of THEDESs were investigated. • Antibacterial and anti-cancer activities and cytotoxicity of THEDESs were studied. Deep eutectic solvents (DESs), as a new type of green solvent, have shown great advantages of easy preparation, no purification needed after synthesis and great potential for application in various fields. Recently, a new type of drug delivery system called therapeutic deep eutectic solvent (THEDES) was developed when combining active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) into DES. Herein, we have constructed a series of new THEDES based on matrine (API) and fatty acids. Their physicochemical properties and bioactivities were investigated. In a temperature range from 298.15 K to 338.15 K, both density and viscosity declined with the increasing temperature. Besides, the density of THEDES decreased with the increasing alkyl chain length of fatty acids due to the enhancement of free volume, while the alkyl chain length displayed no influence on the viscosity of THEDES. Moreover, THEDESs showed better antibacterial activity on S. aureus as compared with matrine and the mixture solution of matrine and fatty acids at the same concentration. THEDESs also displayed better cell antiproliferative activities and higher cytotoxicity than that of matrine. Therefore, the results presented herein provides important basis for the further applications of matrine in the form of THEDES.