Abstract

Background: The second most common cause of mortality by cancer is thought to be colorectal cancer, which is one of the most prevalent tumours in the world. Many health advantages have been linked to curcumin, which is the key component of turmeric. The goal of the current study was to create a colon-targeted microbead method coated with Eudragit S100 to improve curcumin targeting in the colon by speeding up the rate of its dissolution.

Methods: The ionotropic gelation process was used to create the formulations. The surface phenomena, bead shape, entrapment effectiveness, drug loading, and in vitro drug release were all assessed for formulations. Moreover, calcium alginate beads with an improved core were enteric coated with Eudragit S100. The polymer concentration and curing duration significantly affected particle size and entrapment effectiveness, respectively.

Results: The particle size of the improved formulation was 705 μm, drug entrapment efficiency was 83.56%, drug loading was 28.64%, and in vitro release was 81.66% after 6 hours in phosphate buffer at pH 6.8. After 10 hours, enteric coating with Eudragit S100 of optimized calcium alginate microbeads revealed a 64.09 ± 0.16% drug release. The calculated values of the regression coefficients for the Higuchi, first-order, and zero-order models were 0.9494, 0.8913, and 0.9579, respectively. The 50% inhibitory concentration value was 2.676 based on the percentage of cell viability.

Conclusion: To effectively treat colorectal cancer, the enteric-coated calcium alginate microbeads can deliver curcumin selectively to the colon when taken orally.

Keywords: Curcumin, Eudragit S100, potassium alginate, multiparticulate, colorectal cancer, microbead method.

Graphical Abstract