Title: Preparation and characterisation of curcumin nanosuspension for enhanced solubility and dissolution velocity

Authors: R. Ravichandran

Addresses: Regional Institute of Education (NCERT), Bhopal – 462 013, India

Abstract: Curcumin is known to have both chemopreventive and therapeutic properties and has got tremendous commercial value. However, it has potential limitation because of its very low aqueous solubility and stability. Poorly water-soluble compounds like curcumin with dissolution limited bioavailability need novel approaches for enhancement of bioavailability and therapeutic efficacy. The use of nanosuspension approach offers an opportunity to address the issues associated with such molecules. High pressure homogenisation technique can be employed to produce drug nanocrystals with a number of advantages in comparison to other techniques. The present study shows the feasibility of formulating a stable formulation of curcumin with minimum particle size through high pressure homogenisation technique. Different stabilisers were tried to get stable formulations. The influence of number of homogenising cycles on particle size was studied. Physico-chemical characterisation and stability of nanosuspensions were also studied. Selected nanosuspension formulations were lyophilised to convert into solid dosage forms. These studies had indicated that the aqueous dispersion of curcumin nanoparticles could be converted into stable solid dosage forms with out affecting the size on reconstitution.

Keywords: curcumin; nanosuspensions; nanocrystals; physico-chemical evaluation; nanotechnology; nanomaterials; homogenising cycles; particle size.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNBM.2010.037803

International Journal of Nano and Biomaterials, 2010 Vol.3 No.2, pp.153 - 186

Received: 11 Jun 2010
Accepted: 27 Sep 2010

Published online: 30 Dec 2010 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article