Improving Bioavailability of Silybin by Inclusion Into SBA-15 Mesoporous Silica Materials

Mesoporous silica SBA-15 (SC) and template occluded SBA-15 (SP) were used to increase the bioavailability of silybin, an extremely poorly water soluble drug. Silybin was introduced into SC and SP by assembling or self-assembling methods. The results of X-ray powder diffraction, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and N-2 adsorption-desorption experiment indicated that amorphous silybin was successfully introduced into the mesopores in both SC and SP samples. The transmission electron micrograph (TEM) images revealed that the structure of the mesoporous materials was not destroyed after the drug loading. Results of dissolution rate tests and animal experiments showed that both SC and SP can significantly improve the bioavailability of silybin, SP was thus preferred because the template needs not to be removed by calcination or extraction.