Fabrication and evaluation of curcumin-loaded nanoparticles based on solid lipid as a new type of colloidal drug delivery system

Curcumin has very broad spectrum of biological activities; however, photodegradation, short half-life and low bioavailability have limited its clinical application. Curcumin-loaded solid lipid nanoparticles were studied to overcome these problems. The aim of this study was to optimize the best formulation on curcumin-loaded solid lipid nanoparticles. Emulsion-evaporation and low temperature-solidification technique was applied with monostearin as lipid carriers. The single factor analysis and orthogonal design were used to optimize formulation and various parameters were investigate. By the optimisation of a single factor analysis and orthogonal test, the particles size, polydispersity index, zeta potential, encapsulation efficiency and drug loading capacity of the optimised formulation were 99.99 nm, 0.158, −19.9 mV, 97.86%, and 4.35%, respectively. The differential scanning calorimetry and X-ray diffraction analysis results demonstrated new structure was formed in nanoparticles. The release kinetics in vitro demonstrated curcumin-loaded solid lipid nanoparticles can control drug release. These studies confirmed that curcumin-loaded solid lipid nanoparticles could be prepared successfully with high drug entrapment efficiency and loading capacity. Curcumin-loaded solid lipid nanoparticles may be a promising drug delivery system to control drug release and improve bioavailability.