The stabilities of curcumin and drug-loading property of starch microspheres for it

The stabilities of curcumin under various conditions were studied. The starch microspheres crosslinked by N,N'-methylene bisacrylamide(MBAA) were used as curcumin carrier, drug-loading method and drug release behaviors in vitro were investigated. The results indicated that concentration of organic solvent, temperature and pH value could affect the stability of curcumin. Using the absorption method, the smaller diameters of the microspheres were, the more quantities of drug were loaded. After 2h of absorption, the optimum capacity of drug (drug loaded 134.24mg/g, encapsulation efficiency 83.90%) was loaded when the mass ratio of microspheres to curcumin was 5:1. In vitro, curcumin could be sustainingly released from microsphere and 80.53% of curcumin was released after 25 h. According to DSC analysis of drug-loading microspheres, curcumin had loss the crystal structure and exited as complex with starch microspheres.