(29c) Synthesis and Characterization of Polyester and Polyamide Microcapsules for Vitamin E Encapsulation

Vitamin E (α-tocopherol) is a strong antioxidant extensively used in numerous medical and cosmetic applications, e.g. in the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and other neurological diseases. Since vitamin E is considerably sensitive to light, heat and oxygen, and therefore suffer rapid degradation, its protection before use is crucial.

Microencapsulation is an appropriate solution for that protective function. A well-established strategy, microencapsulation used in several areas for the transport and protection of active agents. This approach allows the retention of the agent of interest, protecting it from degradation, evaporation and, more importantly, it offers the possibility of controlled release.

In this work, vitamin E was microencapsulated, by interfacial polycondensation and solvent diffusion method, to form solid resistant capsules, composed of polyester either polyamide walls. Different conditions were used to achieve the best microencapsulation formulation. The produced microcapsules were characterized in terms of size distribution, shape ad storage stability. The encapsulation efficiency and kinetics release of vitamin E were also evaluated.

Both polyester and polyamide based microcapsules showed to be spherical, with a smooth surface and unimodal size distributions. Additionally, satisfactory encapsulation efficiencies of Vitamin E and slow core release profiles were obtained.

The produced microcapsules demonstrated great potential as control delivery systems for pharmaceutic, textile, food or cosmetic applications.

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