ABSTRACT
Physicochemical characteristics and in vitro anti-skin aging activity of gallic acid loaded in niosomes were investigated. Gallic acid was loaded in neutral (Brij 52/cholesterol at 7:3) and cationic CTAB niosomes (Brij 52/cholesterol/cetyltrimethylammonium bromide at 7:3:0.65). The maximum loading capacity and entrapment efficiency of gallic acid were 3.5, 4.48⯱â¯2.10 in neutral and 50%, w/w, 10.94⯱â¯0.78% in cationic CTAB niosomes, respectively. All gallic acid loaded in niosomes showed the unilamellar structure under transmission electron microscope with size range of 131.23-508.03â¯nm at initial and after storage for 3â¯months. The highest remaining percentage of gallic acid at all storage temperatures after 3â¯months was about 77% when loaded in the cationic CTAB niosome, whereas gallic acid in solution was about 64%. The release profiles of gallic acid loaded in neutral and cationic CTAB niosomes revealed the gradual release in 24â¯h. The cytotoxicity of gallic acid loaded in neutral and cationic CTAB niosomes appeared the non-cytotoxic effect in B16F10 melanoma cells and human skin fibroblasts. The cationic CTAB niosome loaded with gallic acid demonstrated the highest anti-skin aging activity, including melanin suppression effect (55.92⯱â¯4.92% of control) by inhibition of tyrosinase (53.18⯱â¯3.67% of control) and tyrosinase-related protein-2 (24.61⯱â¯7.92% of control), antioxidant (87.03⯱â¯0.99% cell viability) and inhibition of matrix metalloproteinase-2 (38.46⯱â¯1.53% of control). This study has demonstrated the superior stability and anti-skin aging activity of gallic acid loaded in cationic CTAB niosome for potential utilization in pharmaceutical and cosmetic products.