FORMULATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF ANTIOXIDANT RELEASING FILMS ENRICHED WITH AVICENNIA MARINA BIOACTIVES

Avicennia marina is a marine mangrove enriched with various bioactive compounds. Thin film mediated drug delivery has become one of the novel methods to deliver the drugs with enhanced bioavailability. In this study, antioxidant releasing films was developed using gelatin polymer fortified with A.marina bioactives. Gelatin based antioxidant films with glycerol (GAG) and without glycerol (GA), but both films enriched with A. marina bioactives was developed and characterized. AF was light green in colour and have mass of 370± 0.27 and 269 ± 0.54 mg for GAG and GA respectively. Folding endurance of GAG was found to be higher than GA. AF have shown greater solubility percentage for GAG than GA in both water and buffer, pH7.4. Tensile strength of AF -GA was higher compared to AF-GAG. However, percent of elongation at break was found to be higher for AF-GAG than AF-GA. Invitro assays revealed that AF had excellent antioxidant , protein denaturation inhibition, membrane stabilization and nitric oxide scavenging activity. Disintegration time of AF-GAG and GA was found to vary very slightly. However, dissolution time of AF-GAG and GA has shown moderate variation. GAG and GA have shown surface pH of 6.6 and 6.7 respectively. Hence, this antioxidant releasing films enriched with A. marina bioactives will be a better choice to improve the antioxidant status and immunity. Key words: Antioxidant films, Avicennia marina, bioavailability, bioactives, gelatin