Loading and Release of Curcumin from Carboxymethyl Chitosan Conjugated with Coordinative Composite

Curcumin as one of polyphenolic compounds is well-known to exhibit high anti-cancer, anti-oxidation, antimicrobial, anti-inflammation, anti-diabetic, anti-Alzheimer and anti-rheumatic performances. Therefore, the investigation of effective techniques for controllable release of curcumin is considerably interested in the recent years. The current approach demonstrates an investigation for exploiting a composite of carboxymethyl chitosan (CMCh) and Cu-L-aspartic acid (Cu-L-AA) for controllable release of curcumin. CMCh-Cu-L-AA composite was formerly synthesized via coordinative bonding between copper as central metal and L-AA and CMCh as a ligand. The release study revealed that; the release percentage of curcumin was significantly affected by changing in pH from 5 (CMCh-Cu-L-AA 30%; release of 78%) to 9 (CMCh-Cu-L-AA; release of 79%) and (CMCh-Cu-L-AA 30%; release of 48%). Moreover, regardless to pH conditions, CMCh-Cu-L-AA 30% showed the highest affinity for controllable release of curcumin. The fitting to Higuchi model reflected that the release rate of curcumin was slow at longer time. Meanwhile, n value in Krosmeyer–Peppas model suggested for the possibility of curcumin release via composite swelling rather than diffusion/erosion, whereas the release of curcumin was show to be lower at pH 7 due to the de-swelling. In summarization, the slowest release of curcumin from CMCh-Cu-L-AA 30% is recommended for more of controllable action and more opportunities for getting the beneficial activity of curcumin for biomedical applications.