Plant-mediated biosynthesis of zein–pectin nanoparticle: Preparation, characterization and in vitro drug release study

Abstract

The present study was designed to investigate the potential of the biopolymeric nanoparticle, formulated solely from natural resources using zein from maize as the core, pectin from ivy gourd as shell and ethyl acetate fraction of the plant Mimosa pudica as the drug. The plant-mediated biosynthesis of the biopolymeric nanoparticle was done by sonication method. The morphology and size of nanoparticles were characterized by Scanning Electron Microscopy and the thermal stability was studied with the aid of Thermogravimetric Analysis and Differential Scanning Calorimetric studies. An in vitro drug release study was conducted to study the release of the plant extract from the nanoparticle and the mechanism of release was deduced by substituting the values to various mathematical models. The SEM investigation of developed nanoparticles revealed that the particles are amorphous, spherical in shape with a size ranging from 150 to 200 nm diameters. The FT-IR characterization study confirmed the incorporation of all the components in Nanoparticle. The investigation on thermal stability was achieved by thermogravimetric and differential scanning calorimetric studies and the results revealed that the particles are stable upto120 °C. Sustained drug release was observed in in vitro drug release studies at intestinal pH. To establish the mechanism of release the data were substituted to various mathematical models and was found to follow zero order and Higuchi mechanisms.