Abstract
Oil-chitosan composite spheres were synthesized by encapsulation of sunflower seed oil in chitosan droplets, dropping into NaOH solution and in situ solidification. Hydrophilic materials (i.e., iron oxide nanoparticles) and lipophilic materials (i.e., rhodamine B or epirubicin) could be encapsulated simultaneously in the spheres in a one step process. The diameters of the prepared spheres were 2.48 ± 0.11 mm (pure chitosan spheres), 2.31 ± 0.08 mm (oil-chitosan composites), 1.49 ± 0.15 mm (iron-oxide embedded oil-chitosan composites), and 1.69 ± 0.1 mm (epirubicin and iron oxide encapsulated oil-chitosan composites), respectively. Due to their superparamagnetic properties, the iron-oxide embedded oil-chitosan composites could be guided by a magnet. A lipophilic drug (epirubicin) could be loaded in the spheres with encapsulation rate measured to be 72.25%. The lipophilic fluorescent dye rhodamine B was also loadable in the spheres with red fluorescence being observed under a fluorescence microscope. We have developed a novel approach to an in situ process for fabricating oil-chitosan composite spheres with dual encapsulation properties, which are potential multifunctional drug carriers.
Highlights
Chitosan is a natural polysaccharide that has several advantages, including non-toxicity, biocompatibility and biodegradability
There were no significant changes between pure chitosan spheres and oil-chitosan composite spheres
Comparing the size of the oil-chitosan composite spheres between that with and without encapsulated iron oxide (Figure 3B,C), we found that the latter was much smaller than the former
Summary
Chitosan is a natural polysaccharide that has several advantages, including non-toxicity, biocompatibility and biodegradability. Magnetic-responsive chitosan spheres are a combination of two materials (i.e., chitosan and iron oxide) that form multifunctional particles which allow for more applications than particles with a single ingredient [7,8,9]. The combinations of iron oxide nanoparticles and chitosan matrices exhibit good mechanical and functional properties and can be applied in various fields, such as recyclable responsive drug release, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) enhancement, heavy metal removal, etc. Due to its natural non-toxicity and biocompatibility properties, chitosan has become a good material for encapsulation of some environmentally sensitive ingredients such as lipophilic drugs and vitamins, enzymes, antigens, olive oil extract, etc. Solidification was subsequently achieved by dropping the ferro-gel droplets into a NaOH solution to form the oil-chitosan spheres with embedded iron oxide nanoparticles. One step synthesis of multifunctional capsules is another significant advantage of the present approach
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