Pectin and chitosan microsphere preparation via a water/oil emulsion and solvent evaporation method for drug delivery

Abstract

In the present work, the potential of pectin and chitosan as microspheres for the controlled release of acetaminophen was studied. The microspheres of both biopolymers were prepared by an emulsion and solvent evaporation method. The method employed was efficient for the preparation of both microspheres yielding uniform, spherical, and nonporous microspheres. The average diameters were 24.98 ± 13.67 μm and 0.62 ± 0.24 μm for the acetaminophen-loaded pectin and chitosan microspheres, respectively, making them suitable for oral, nasal, ocular, and subcutaneous administration or implantation in combination with a three-dimensional matrix scaffold. XRD studies revealed the amorphous nature of the polymers, before and after the synthesis of the microspheres. FT-IR and DSC analyses showed that there was no interaction between pectin and acetaminophen, but there was an interaction at the molecular level between chitosan and the drug. The encapsulation efficiency percentage was higher for chitosan microspheres with a value up to 64%. The results showed that acetaminophen, which was the model drug encapsulated in the microspheres, was released for approximately 250 h in the case of pectin microspheres and 420 h for chitosan microspheres, and drug release was sustained in both cases.