Polymer coating procedure for avoiding phenolic compounds degradation in Melissa officinalis based pellets

ARCE S; PAREDES AJ; CASADO C; CERUTTI S; LLABOT J.M; GOMEZ, M. R

Córdoba

Congreso; 3° Reunión Internacional de Ciencias Farmacéuticas ? RICiFa 2014; 2014

Departamento de Farmacia, Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Departamento de Farmacia, Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmacéuticas, Universidad Nacional de Rosario

The official drug Melissa officinalis L. (Lamiaceae) ?melisa? is widely cultivated throughout the world because of its medicinal properties. M. officinalis is rich in terpenoids, flavonoids and phenolic acid derivatives, with rosmarinic acid (RA) as the main component, generally used as analytical marker in the quality control assays. However, it is well known that phenolic compounds are sensitive to many different factors such as high temperature, UV radiation, air oxygen and metal ions. For this reason, strategies to avoid the phenolic components degradation are necessary. In the present work, ?melisa? based dried extracts were obtained and used for pellets preparation. Also, a procedure for protecting unstable components was applied to the pellets Infusions of M. officinalis were prepared according to FNA VI ed. (10% w/v) and dried in a Mini-spray BÜCHI Dryer 290, inlet temperature ranging between 90 and 140 °C, with Aerosil ® as carrier. A rheological study of the dried extracts was performed, the obtained solids showed good compressibility and fluidity. By modifying different parameters in the granulation process and using sequentially the procedures of extrusion and spheronization, the dried extract material was used for pellets preparation. The nature and quantity of formulation components, was also evaluated. A polymer film coating was applied to the pellets with the aim of protecting the phenolic compounds against humidity and temperature effects. Suspensions with different percentages of polymer were evaluated for applying an optimal coating film to the pellets. The polymer selected for the coating was Opadry® AMB in a concentration of 20% (w/v). The coated pellets were used for gelatin capsules filling. The content of RA in the coated pellets was analyzed by, showing LC-MS/MS, that the degradation of phenolic compounds was avoided with the described procedure