Morphological Evaluation of Chitosan/Curcumin Beads and Powder: Effect of the Methanol as a Solvent

Curcumin is a polyphenolic component of Curcuma longa, highlighting in the literature by presenting medicinal properties such as: antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antiparasitic, antimalarial and anticancer activities. From this, it has been used together with curcumin, chitosan, a biodegradable polymer of natural origin, in order to encapsulate curcumin from a polymer system. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the morphological behavior of beads and powder chitosan/curcumin, by the Optical Microscopy (OM) technique in the presence of the solvent (methanol). From the pictures, it was noticed that the beads have in their external structure the presence of the drug in a punctual manner, but a more homogeneous internal region. Regarding the powder, it was observed that curcumin was well distributed and involved by chitosan, proving the good interaction between them. In the presence of the solvent, the beads and the powder showed a good distribution of curcumin.