Preparation, characterization and in vivo evaluation of novel hyaluronan containing niosomes tailored by Box-Behnken design to co-encapsulate curcumin and quercetin.

Designing novel drug delivery systems to improve drug efficiencies have gained great interests in recent years. In this study, a new vesicular system has been prepared using thin film hydration method with slight modifications, hydrophobic drugs have been used in both lipophilic and hydrophilic phases and dry film was hydrated by hyaluronan polymeric solution, to overcome curcumin and quercetin formulation drawbacks. Briefly, different formulations were prepared according to Box-Behnken design to assess the effect of HLB value, cholesterol and hyaluronan contents on the properties of niosomes. Then, the best formulation was selected for further studies and compared with conventional niosomes. The results showed that both niosomes had spherical shapes according to Transmission Electron and Atomic Force Microscopic images. Results also showed that hyaluronan containing niosomes had smaller size and higher values of zeta potential and entrapment than conventional niosomes. The average size of hyaluronan containing niosomes was 260.37 ±â€¯6.58 nm, the zeta potential was -34.97 ±â€¯1.50 mv and the entrapment for curcumin and quercetin were 98.85 ±â€¯0.55% and 93.13 ±â€¯1.22%, respectively. The release kinetic of quercetin was best fitted to Peppas model for both conventional niosome and hyaluronan containing niosomes; while, the release kinetic of curcumin was best fitted with non-conventional order 2 and three second roots of mass for hyaluronan containing niosomes and conventional niosomes, respectively. Hyaluronan containing niosomes showed higher antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects in comparison with conventional niosomes.

A Box-Behnken design for determining the optimum experimental condition of the fungicide (Vapam) sorption onto soil modified with perlite.

In the present study, response surface methodology (RSM) based on the Box-Behnken design (BBD) was employed to investigate the effects of the different operating conditions on the removal of the fungicide (Vapam) onto soil modified with perlite using sorption process. The process parameters such as pH of the fungicide solution (2, 5 and 8), temperature (15, 25 and 35°C), shaking time (2, 13 and 24 h) and the percentage of perlite in the modified soil (0, 2 and 4 %) were investigated using a four-factor-three-level Box-Behnken design at an initial fungicide concentration of C(0) = 1.6 mg/L as a fixed input parameter. A second-order quadratic model suggested the optimum conditions to be as follows: fungicide solution pH of 3.57, temperature of 15°C, shaking time of 3.5 h and 4% of perlite in the modified soil which resulted in the improvement of Vapam sorption. Under optimum conditions, the fungicide (Vapam) removal was predicted 12.88 µg/g by BBD. The confirmatory experiments were conducted and the results revealed that the fungicide removal was 13.14 µg/g which indicated that the predicted and the observed values of response (Vapam removal) were in close agreement. Therefore, the soil modified with perlite holds good potential for Vapam sorption. This is the first report on fungicide Vapam sorption onto soil modified with perlite using statistical experimental design employing response surface methodology.