Studies on Improvement of Water-Solubility of
Curcumin With Electrospun Nanofibers
Gamze RÜZGAR*, Mehmet BÝRER*, Serdar TORT*, Füsun ACARTÜRK*°
* Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, Gazi University Faculty of Pharmacy, 06330 Ankara, Turkey
°Corresponding Author :
Phone: +90 (312) 202 30 50
Fax: +90 (312) 212 79 58
e-mail: fusun.acarturk@gmail.com
SUMMARY
Curcumin has low solubility and low permeability thus classified
as BCS Class 4. The aim of this study, improve the solubility of
curcumin by preparing electrospun nanofibers.
Curcumin nanofibers were prepared from a final mixture (FM),
which contained HPMC and PEO polymers. Before, conductivity,
viscosity and surface tension values of each polymer solution and
the FM were measured. Viscosity of PEO (polyethylene oxide) and
HPMC (hydroxypropyl methylcellulose) solutions were found to be
low compare to FM. The conductivity of FM was higher than PEO
solution whereas lower than HPMC solution. The surface tension of
polymer solutions were higher than FM.
Electrospinning was performed at 14 kV using a flow rate of 0.6
mL/h for 3 h. The distance of needle tip to the collector was 21 cm.
The morphologies and the mean diameter of fibers were determined
by SEM (138±39 nm). DSC and FT-IR studies of nanofibers were
carried out. According to results, electrospinning didn’t alter chemical
structure of polymers and CUR during the process. Solubility studies
were carried out at distilled water and pH 1.2 buffer.
FM had lowest surface tension value thus provided better
electrospinning process. Drug loading was found to be 137.75 μg per
cm2. Curcumin was found practically insoluble in distilled water
and pH 1.2 buffer. The solubility of curcumin was increased from
zero to 7.66 mg/l, 1.57 mg/l in water and pH 1.2 buffer respectively.
It was concluded that electrospinning is a useful technique for the
improvement of the poorly-soluble drugs such as curcumin.
Key Words: Nanofiber, solubility, curcumin, electrospinning,
