No abstract

Research on starch-based biopolymers has increased because of their potential as environmentally friendly biodegradable substitutes to typical plastics. This study investigates the effect of rye flour as a main reinforcement agent as well as cellulose and citric acid in biocomposite starches on improving their water vapor permeability (WPF) and mechanical properties. The optimum point of the starch biocomposites obtained by Design of Experiments software 7.1.5 is run with 10% cellulose,and 10% rye flour with a WPF value equal to 8.7E-10 g s −1 m −1 Pa −1 , water uptake (WU) of 3.42%, and good mechanical properties. Validation of the optimum point does not show significant difference between the predicted and the actual values. There is some strong hydrogen and physical bonding in the optimized starch biocomposite that changes the intensity of the absorption bands and improves the mechanical properties.

The present study was performed to optimise the formulation of a muco-adhesive buccal patch for insulin nanoparticles (NPs) delivery. Insulin NPs were synthesised by an ionic gelation technique using N-di methyl ethyl chitosan cysteine (DMEC-Cys) as permeation enhancer biopolymer, tripolyphosphate (TPP) and insulin. Buccal patches were developed by solvent-casting technique using chitosan and gelatine as muco-adhesive polymers. Optimised patches were embedded with 3 mg of insulin-loaded NPs with a homogeneous distribution of NPs in the muco-adhesive matrix, which displayed adequate physico-mechanical properties. The drug release characteristics, release mechanism and kinetics were investigated. Data fitting to Peppas equation with a correlation coefficient indicated that the mechanism of drug release followed an anomalous transport that means drug release was afforded through drug diffusion along with polymer erosion. In vitro drug release, release kinetics, physical and mechanical studies for all patch formulations reflected the ideal characteristics of this buccal patch for the delivery of insulin NPs.