Evaluation and clinical comparison studies on liposomal and non-liposomal ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and their enhanced bioavailability

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the oral bioavailability of liposomal vitamin C and non-liposomal vitamin C in healthy, adult, human subjects under fasting conditions through an open label, randomized, single-dose, two-treatment, two-sequence, two-period, two-way crossover, study. The vitamin C loaded liposome was well characterized using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), dynamic light scattering (DLS) and zeta potential measurements for evaluating morphology, particle size and stabilities, respectively. Microscopic image shows the core-type structure that confirms the characteristic pattern of liposome. The encapsulation efficiency (EE%) and the particle size were 65.85 ± 1.84% and below 100 nm, respectively. The results of the clinical studies of liposomal vitamin C by oral delivery to be 1.77 times more bioavailable than non-liposomal vitamin C. The liposomal vitamin C demonstrated higher values of C_max, AUC_0–t and AUC_0-∞ related to non-liposomal vitamin C due to liposomal encapsulation. No adverse events were reported. It could be concluded that liposomal encapsulated ascorbic acid (vitamin C) shows well-organized morphological pattern, uniform particle size and highly efficient, which leads to have enhanced bioavailability.

Keywords:

• Vitamin C
• liposomes
• pharmacokinetics
• bioavailability
• nutraceuticals

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully thank the management and laboratory members of ADSO naturals (P) Ltd, Bangalore, India, and CureSupport, Deventer, Netherlands, for their active support and cooperation. The authors thank Prof. Sabu Thomas, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, India, for his constant encouragement and instrumental support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).