Abstract
Xylan is a biopolymer found in a variety of cell wall plants. Eudragit® S-100 (ES100), a pH-dependent polymer, is used as a coating material in gastroresistant delivery systems. In this study, microparticles based on both polymers were produced by interfacial cross-linking polymerisation and/or spray-drying technique in order to investigate feasibility and stability of the systems. Size and morphology of the microparticles were characterised by optical and SEM while FT-IR, thermal analysis (TG/DTA), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) evaluated the drug–polymer interactions and the thermal behaviour of the systems. FT-IR confirmed the absence of chemical interaction between the polymers. TG/DTA analysis showed a higher stability for spray-dried microparticles and XRD data proved the amorphous feature of both carriers. The results reveal that xylan/ES100 microparticles can be produced by chemical or physico-mechanical ways, the latter being the best option due to the lack of toxic cross-linking agents and easy scale-up.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by CNPq and CAPES. The authors are grateful to Prof. Dr Josue Mendes from the Universidade Federal do Ceará, and Prof. Dr Arnóbio Antonio Silva-Júnior from the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, for the thermogravimetric analysis; and CTPETRO-INFRA I and FINEP/LIEM for the SEM images and XRD analysis. The authors also thank Glenn Hawes, from the University of Georgia – American Language Program, for editing this article.