Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, Vol.53, No.11, 4318-4327, 2014
Enhanced Delivery of Quercetin by Encapsulation in Poloxamers by Supercritical Antisolvent Process
The promising applications of quercetin as a functional additive in food and pharmaceutical products are hindered by the low bioavailability of this compound. The formulation of quercetin by encapsulation in a surfactant polymer capable of forming micelles in aqueous media can help improve the dissolution of quercetin in water and thus facilitate the assimilation of this compound by organisms. In this work, quercetin was encapsulated in Pluronic F127 poloxamers by the supercritical antisolvent (SAS) technique. The structure and morphology of the product were characterized by SEM, DSC, XRD, and FTIR spectroscopy. The results indicated that, through SAS processing, a significant reduction in particle size was achieved. With appropriate polymer/active compound mass ratios, quercetin was homogeneously dispersed in an amorphous polymer matrix, and no segregated crystalline particles of quercetin were observed. These structural and morphological variations enabled an improved dissolution behavior of quercetin in simulated gastric and intestinal fluids.