Romanian Society of Pharmaceutical Sciences

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DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF THE ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITY OF LIPOSOMES AND NANOSPHERES CONTAINING ROSMARINIC ACID

ÇIĞDEM YÜCEL1*, GÖKÇE ŞEKER-KARATOPRAK2

1.Faculty of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, Erciyes University, 38039 Kayseri, Turkey
2.Faculty of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmacognosy, Erciyes University, 38039 Kayseri, Turkey

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Rosmarinic acid (RA) is a strong antioxidant compound that is present in many natural plant extracts. Despite its strong antioxidant activity, it had a limited use because of the low water solubility and chemical instability. Encapsulation technologies have been used for improving the solubility and long-term stability of bioactive molecules. Liposomes (LPs) and nanospheres (NSs) can encapsulate many types of molecules and can provide high bioavailability and are able to assure a sustained release for a long time. In this study, RA-loaded LPs and NSs were developed and characterized in vitro. Encapsulation efficiencies (EE) % of formulations were found 55.6% and 43.4% respectively. Release studies of RA, performed using pH 7.4 phosphate buffer for 24 hours through dialyse membrane were investigated and 74.2 ± 2.11% and 83.2 ± 1.91% drug release rates were obtained respectively. The stability studies were performed when the formulations were stored at three different temperatures for 3 months. The significant particle size increase and the zeta potential decrease were not observed in LPs and NSs after 3 months when stored at 4ºC (p > 0.05). Antioxidant activities were measured using DPPH● and ABTS.+ radical scavenging effect and ascorbate-iron(III)-catalysed phospholipid peroxidation and the results were found to be favourable. Generally, RA could load the drug carrier systems successfully and it was concluded that the prolonged antioxidant activity could be sustained for 24 hours.