Synthesis The Montmorillonite- Pomegranate (Punicagranatum L.) Peel Polyphenols Nanostructure As A Drug Delivery Vehicle
Mohammad Golbashy1, Hossein Sabahi1*, Iraj Allahdadi2, Hossein Nazokdast3 and Morteza Hosseini1

1Department of Life Science Engineering, Faculty of New Sciences and Technologies, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran. 2Department of Agronomy, College of Aburaihan, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran. 3Department of Polymer Engineering and Color Technology, University of Technology, Tehran Polytechnic, Tehran, Iran. Correspomding Author Email: hsabahi@ut.ac.ir

Abstract: Among constituents of plants, polyphenols have received a great deal of attention, in recent years, due to their diverse biological functions. The effects of bulk polyphenols are limited by their relative low bioavailability and short half-life due to their varying structures, moderate solubility, and fast oxidation under basic conditions. Therefore, use of a polyphenol-loaded nanoparticles system suggested controlling polyphenols properties. As a proof-of-concept study, the pomegranate peel polyphenol was loaded into montmorillonite (MMT) clay to evaluate its utility as a drug delivery vehicle. Loading is complete within one hour and the most amounts of polyphenol that can be loaded into the clay are based on the polyphenol solution concentration in which the MMT is suspended. MMT showed a basal distance (d001) of 12.3 Å, which in the presence of pomegranate peel polyphenols increased to 15.34 Å, indicating a high degree of interlayering of these materials. This expansion confirmed the almost 100% intercalation. Analyses performed by TG also confirmed the effectiveness of this simple process to intercalate the polyphenol into clay lamellae. The results also suggest that the montmorillonite species, used in the current study, in 1:4 MMT/PP ratio and 1 hr stirrer, have desirable ecological and economic efficiency in production of polyphenol clay composites. This experiment results showed that due to its strong natural hydrophilicity, the montmorillonite can be a more suitable reservator and carrier for applications such as cosmetic than drug delivery in systemic circulation.

Keywords: Pomegranate; Phenolic compounds; Drug delivery system; Intercalation

[ HTML Full Text]

Back to TOC