Abstract

Background: Due to its excellent adsorption capability, activated carbon(AC) has also been employed as a drug carrier. However, applications of the AC carrier in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) have been rare. We selected the Eucommia ulmoides leaf extract as the drug of choice and AC as its carrier, to investigate the adsorption and sustained release behavior of the Eucommia ulmoides leaf extract on the AC.

Methods: AC was employed in this study as the sustained release carrier and its capability for adsorption and sustained release of Eucommia ulmoides leaf extracts was systematically investigated. Acid or alkali modified AC was assessed for its ability to absorb and sustain release of Eucommia ulmoides leaf extracts according to a variety of adsorption/release rate and composition.

Results: Results demonstrated that the adsorption rate for the differently modified AC reached above 80 %, whereas the adsorption of Eucommia ulmoides leaf extracts on the AC was selective. The composition of the sustained release liquid, which was treated by the acid modified AC, was almost similar to the original extract. The acid modified AC was therefore taken as an optimal carrier that can be used for Eucommia ulmoides leaf extracts sustained release.

Conclusion: The synchronous release and absorption of different ingredients in the active ingredient release process ensures the global and cooperative effect with sustained and less toxic advantages. The ideal synchronous release is that the absorbed component proportion is consistent with its release. The acid modified AC was therefore taken as the optimal carrier that can be used for Eucommia ulmoides leaf extracts sustained release.

Keywords: Carbon, adsorption, release, Eucommia ulmoides Oliv. leaf, polylactic acid, cytotoxicity.

Graphical Abstract