Overcoming curcumin solubility barriers through cosolvent-modified green deep eutectic solvent systems: Biopolymer-based encapsulation and controlled release

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Baş Y., Altunkaya A. N., Lalikoğlu M., Kublay İ. Z., Bener M., Aşçı Y. S.

Sustainable Chemistry and Pharmacy, cilt.52, ss.102469-102485, 2026 (Scopus)

Özet

Curcumin, the main compound of the turmeric plant, is widely used as a food supplement. In recent years, it has become one of the popular nutraceutical compounds with its anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. However, the effectiveness of curcumin is limited due to solubility problems in hydrophilic environments. The contribution of deep eutectic solvents (DES), one of the alternative solvents with high performance for many applications, to the bioaccessibility of curcumin was investigated. The best results were obtained using choline chloride-1,2-propanediol-based (CC:PD) mixtures. In addition, the stability and application problems of DESs prepared for high concentration curcumin solutions were solved by modifying them with 0.25 to 7 mol of cosolvent (water and ethanol) per 1 mol of CC. Curcumin solutions in solvent systems containing deep eutectic solvents (DES) and ethanol (EtOH) were encapsulated in alginate-chitosan hydrogels at 10%, 25% and 50% by mass. In vitro controlled release behavior of the obtained curcumin-loaded polymeric beads was studied in simulated gastric fluid (SGF), simulated small intestinal fluid (SIF) and simulated colon fluid (SCF). The results showed that the cosolvent composition of 1:2:2 CC-PD-EtOH exhibited an equilibrium curcumin concentration more than 6 times that of ethanol, the commonly used solvent of curcumin. Drug release studies showed that the highest curcumin release of hydrogel beads occurred in SCF medium. In addition, greenness evaluation using AGREE and AGREEprep metrics confirmed that the developed system is strongly aligned with green chemistry principles.