RESUMO
Liposomes have been used for several decades for the encapsulation of drugs and bioactives in cosmetics and cosmeceuticals. On the other hand, the use of these phospholipid vesicles in food applications is more recent and is increasing significantly in the last ten years. Although in different stages of technological maturity-in the case of cosmetics, many products are on the market-processes to obtain liposomes suitable for the encapsulation and delivery of bioactives are highly expensive, especially those aiming at scaling up. Among the bioactives proposed for cosmetics and food applications, vitamins are the most frequently used. Despite the differences between the administration routes (oral for food and mainly dermal for cosmetics), some challenges are very similar (e.g., stability, bioactive load, average size, increase in drug bioaccessibility and bioavailability). In the present work, a systematic review of the technological advancements in the nanoencapsulation of vitamins using liposomes and related processes was performed; challenges and future perspectives were also discussed in order to underline the advantages of these drug-loaded biocompatible nanocarriers for cosmetics and food applications.
RESUMO
The feasibility of producing proliposomes containing curcumin, as well as liposome dispersions, using different mixtures of purified and nonpurified soybean phospholipids was studied. Proliposomes were produced through coating of micronized sucrose and physicochemically characterized over 30â¯days of storage. In addition, the possible interactions among the components were investigated using X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The proliposomes demonstrated a low propensity of water adsorption and low hygroscopicity. In addition, the curcumin content retained in the powders ranged from 67 to 92%. The liposomes were produced following proliposome hydration. Atomic force microscopy indicated the vesicles presented spherical shapes and photon correlation spectroscopy detected that their hydrodynamic diameters ranged from 207 to 222â¯nm. Finally, the curcumin-loaded liposomes preserved up to 63% of the bioactive compound but remained stable for only 15â¯days of storage.