ABSTRACT

Curcumin is a naturally occurring phytochemical with interesting therapeutical properties. However, it shows some limitations of low intrinsic solubility, fast degradation and poor bioavailability. In this study, curcumin was loaded onto aminofunctionalised starch (amino-starch) nanoparticles via the nanoprecipitation method in an attempt to increase its water solubility. In this nanoprecipitation process, the aminostarch aqueous solution was added into excess ethanolic solution under stirring. Aminostarch nanoparticles were formed as organic solvent got separated from the amino-starch. Amino-starch nanoparticles with mean particle size of 163 nm were obtained by dropwise addition of dissolved amino-starch solution into excess absolute ethanol solution containing curcumin. Amino-starch nanoparticles showed enhanced curcumin loading capacity of 0.76 mg mg^–1 as compared to 0.33 mg mg^–1 for native starch nanoparticles. Curcumin was observed to release out slowly from amino-starch nanoparticles over a period of 12 h. Therefore, the potential of amino-starch nanoparticles as the controlled release nanocarriers for curcumin was demonstrated.

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