Preparation of gelatin beads treated with glucose and glycerol

Abstract

ObstractGelatin is employed in pharmaceutical applications because of its biodegradability, biocompatibility and low toxicity. However, it may be necessary to promote gelatin crosslinking in order to develop drug release systems and extend release times. SEC analyses are used here for the first time to monitor the evolution of molar mass distributions of gelatins during treatment with glycerol and glucose in dispersed media. Unambiguous experimental evidence of gelatin crosslinking in presence of sugars and glycerol has yet to be presented. SEC results indicate that average molar masses decrease during gelatin treatment, while FT-IR analyses indicate that gelatins are subject to structural modifications during processing, which can explain the decrease of gelatin solubility after treatment. The results presented here indicate the importance of using SEC techniques to monitor gelatin crosslinking, as they seemingly contradict previously published results that make use of indirect measures for this purpose.

Influence of Encapsulated Aroma Compounds on the Formation and Morphology of Gelatin Microparticles

“…The main reagents and solvents used throughout this work were PhEur gelatin (Type A), SPAN® 80 (sorbitan monooleate) and D‐(+)‐Glucose. All reagents were purchased from Sigma–Aldrich (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) as pharmaceutical grades of high purity.…”

“…Gelatins may present very different characteristics. It is important to emphasize that the detailed gelatin characterization has been performed and reported by Way et al, with composition shown in Table , as provided by Biosynthesis (Texas, US). Particularly, the pH of the gelatin solution was equal to 5.57, characterizing the PhEur gelatin as a Type A gelatin.…”

Production of doxycycline‐loaded gelatin microspheres through thermal treatment in inverse suspensions

“…. According to previously reported results , average molar masses of gelatins treated thermally in presence of glucose and glycerol tend to decrease during treatment because of the residual modification of the characteristic triple helix structure of collagen. Similar results are presented in Fig.…”

“…, it can be noticed that the best results (the lowest rates of doxycycline release) were the ones obtained without addition of crosslinking agents. As a matter of fact, results published elsewhere also indicated that addition of glucose exerted negligible effect on the course of gelatin thermal treatments, despite the frequent citation of glucose as an effective gelatin crosslinking agent. From a practical point of view, this can indeed constitute a very important processing advantage, as microparticle production can be performed in absence of external crosslinking agents, rendering the process cheaper and simpler.…”

Gelatin as It Is: History and Modernity

“…Owing to it also makes possible the controlled and/or directed release of bioactive molecules contained in gelatin capsules [ 181 , 182 ]. For the encapsulation of drugs in such capsules, it may be useful to cross-link gelatin polymer chains in order, on the one hand, to reduce its solubility in body fluids and on the other hand, to provide a prolonged release of the encapsulated drug [ 183 , 184 ].…”