Sustained release of hydrophobic materials from sonochemically prepared bovine serum albumin microcapsules

Abstract Bovine serum albumin microcapsules containing chloroform have been synthesized from the mixture of bovine serum albumin solution and chloroform using an ultrasound irradiation technique. Sudan III dissolved in chloroform phase was microencapsulated. The membrane permeability of Sudan III was evaluated at 25, 30 and 37°C in chloroform. A lag phase was observed in the time course of the permeation. The length of the lag phase was temperature-dependent. It was found that the length of the lag phase was explained by the activation energy. The Arrhenius plot of the reciprocal of the lag time suggests that the existence of the lag phase is associated with activation energy. The activation energy was evaluated to be 60 kJ mol −1 . The release of Sudan III from the microcapsules by the degradation of microcapsule membranes has also been studied.