Synthesis and Properties of Inulin Based Microgels

Abstract

Cross-linked inulin (X-inulin) microparticles were synthesized in reverse micelles using water-in-oil microemulsion polymerization. Linear inulin was crosslinked with divinyl sulfone (DVS) in a sodium bis(2-ethylhexyl) sulfosuccinate (AOT) inverse microemulsion under basic conditions. These particles were demonstrated to be excellent scaffolds for the in situ synthesis of CdS quantum dots (Q-dots). The inulin-based particles were shown to be non-cytotoxic in fibroblast cell culture, and degradable under acidic and basic conditions. Furthermore, gallic acid and caffeine were used as model drugs for loading and release studies from these particles, illustrating their potential as drug carriers with controlled release.© 2014 Published by Elsevier B.V.Inulin, a β(2-1) linked polysaccharide of D-fructose, is a naturallyoccurring, linear biopolymer found in many plants [1,2]. Inulin is used in various dairy products as a texture improvement agent and is found in a variety of vegetables and fruits such as onion, garlic, banana and chicory [3,4]. Inulin is assumed to be an important food additive due to prebiotic and other protective effects [1][2][3][4]. Therefore, the degradation of inulin as food additive is affected by the food processing temperature and the pH of the medium [5][6][7]. The advantages of inulin are safety, nontoxicity, ability to form gels, hydrophilicity, biocompatibility, and biodegradability [8][9][10]. Polysaccharides are often used to prepare microparticles because of their excellent properties for nutritional and medicinal applications. Natural biopolymers such as polysaccharides have been widely used as active agent carriers i.e., in drug delivery systems, tissue engineering, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics [9,[11][12][13][14]. Moreover, hydrogel microparticles with high water absorption capacity can also interact with active agents such as drugs via suitable functional groups for controlled delivery [12].In this study, we describe the preparation and characterization of X-inulin particles and some of their applications. Cross-linked inulin hydrogel particles were synthesized using water-in-oil microemulsion system according to the previously reported method [13] that was the same as preparation of hyaluronic acid, carboxymethyl cellulose and κ-carrageenan particles [14]. Degradation of X-inulin particles was investigated by placing about 20 mg of dried X-inulin particles in a 10 mL buffer solution at pH 2.4 and 10.9 prepared from sodium citrate and hydrochloric acid, and sodium phosphate (Na 2 HPO 4 ) and NaOH, respectively in water bath at 37°C under constant shaking. At certain time intervals, the particles were removed from buffer solutions, centrifuged at 10 000 rpm, and washed with water and after three cycles of centrifugation in acetone, the particles were dried at 50°C until constant weight was attained. Finally, the X-inulin weight losses against incubation time were graphed. To prepare Q-dots within X-inulin particles, 0.2 M 40 mL CdCl 2 solution was prepared, and to this solution, 50...

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