RESUMO
An increasing trend in the food and pharmaceutical industries is toward replacing synthetic additives with natural products. However, in this regard, difficulties may be encountered due to the instability of such compounds. Encapsulation has become an important process to protect natural pigments. This paper reports on the encapsulation of the natural urucum pigment with chitosan using different techniques and its release under different pH conditions. The material loaded with pigment was evaluated by infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and thermal analysis. Chitosan was found to be an effective encapsulating agent for urucum pigment. No investigations have previously been reported on the relation of chitosan to the stability of encapsulated natural pigments.
Assuntos
Bixaceae , Carotenoides , Quitosana , Microesferas , Antioxidantes , Varredura Diferencial de Calorimetria/métodos , Preparações de Ação Retardada , Composição de Medicamentos/métodos , Concentração de Íons de Hidrogênio , Microscopia Eletrônica de Varredura/métodos , Tamanho da Partícula , Espectroscopia de Infravermelho com Transformada de Fourier/métodos , Propriedades de Superfície , Termogravimetria/métodosRESUMO
Extratos de duas espécies de Polygala foram submetidos a um biomonitoramento utilizando o teste de toxicidade frente a Artemia salina, com a finalidade de detectar atividade citotóxica. Os resultados obtidos para o extrato bruto, frações hexânica e diclorometano de Polygala sabulosa Aw. Benn. mostraram-se promissores. No entanto, bioensaios mais específicos devem ser encorajados nos extratos vegetais que apresentam atividade diante deste bioensaio, a fim de confirmar estas conclusões.
Extracts of two species of Polygala were subjected to a bioscreening study to detect cytotoxic activity by the brine shrimp lethality bioassay. The results obtained for the crude extracts, hexanic and dichlorometane fractions of Polygala sabulosa Aw. Benn. were promising. These results suggest that in those plant extracts, which showed activity for this bioassay, more specific bioassays should be encouraged, in order to confirm these conclusions.