CHITOSAN ENCAPSULATED CURCUMIN NANOPARTICLES AS AN EFFECTIVE DRUG DELIVERY SYSTEM FOR ORAL CANCER TREATMENT

Curcumin, a yellow polyphenolic component obtained from the plants of the Curcuma longa, has been used traditionaly as a therapeutic agent. curcumin has poor bioavailability. This problem can be overcome by using nanoparticle technology using biocompatible chitosan as an encapsulating polymer for effective delivery of curcumin. Curcumin nanoparticles were prepared by ionic gelation method and characterized by particle size analysis, resulting in the nanosize range of 138.2 nm to 355 nm and with PDI. The encapsulation efficiency was 73.8±0.17 to 69.6±0.25, respectively. TEM images of Nanoparticles optimized formulation (F4) showed spherical shape & nano size 110nm and 125m. in vitro release profile of curcumin encapsulated chitosan nanoparticles formulations F1 to F9 showed sustained release of drug. In vitro cytotoxicity study (MTT Assay) showed high and long term anticancer efficacy in human oral cancer cell lines till 72h. Stability studies indicated that the formulation was stable.