Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Mar 22;28(6):2875.
doi: 10.3390/molecules28062875.

Phytocannabinoids: Chromatographic Screening of Cannabinoids and Loading into Lipid Nanoparticles

Aleksandra Zielińska  1   2 , Raquel da Ana  2 , Joel Fonseca  2 , Milena Szalata  3 , Karolina Wielgus  4 , Faezeh Fathi  5 , M Beatriz P P Oliveira  5 , Rafał Staszewski  6 , Jacek Karczewski  7   8 , Eliana B Souto  2   9   10
Affiliations

Phytocannabinoids: Chromatographic Screening of Cannabinoids and Loading into Lipid Nanoparticles

Aleksandra Zielińska et al. Molecules. .

Abstract

Solid Lipid Nanoparticles (SLN) and Nanostructured Lipid Carriers (NLC) are receiving increasing interest as an approach to encapsulate natural extracts to increase the physicochemical stability of bioactives. Cannabis extract-derived cannabidiol (CBD) has potent therapeutic properties, including anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and neuroprotective properties. In this work, physicochemical characterization was carried out after producing Compritol-based nanoparticles (cSLN or cNLC) loaded with CBD. Then, the determination of the encapsulation efficiency (EE), loading capacity (LC), particle size (Z-Ave), polydispersity index (PDI), and zeta potential were performed. Additionally, the viscoelastic profiles and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) patterns were recorded. As a result, CBD-loaded SLN showed a mean particle size of 217.2 ± 6.5 nm, PDI of 0.273 ± 0.023, and EE of about 74%, while CBD-loaded NLC showed Z-Ave of 158.3 ± 6.6 nm, PDI of 0.325 ± 0.016, and EE of about 70%. The rheological analysis showed that the loss modulus for both lipid nanoparticle formulations was higher than the storage modulus over the applied frequency range of 10 Hz, demonstrating that they are more elastic than viscous. The crystallinity profiles of both CBD-cSLN (90.41%) and CBD-cNLC (40.18%) were determined. It may justify the obtained encapsulation parameters while corroborating the liquid-like character demonstrated in the rheological analysis. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) study confirmed the morphology and shape of the developed nanoparticles. The work has proven that the solid nature and morphology of cSLN/cNLC strengthen these particles' potential to modify the CBD delivery profile for several biomedical applications.

Keywords: Compritol® 888 ATO; Miglyol® 812; cannabidiol; nanostructured lipid carriers; solid lipid nanoparticles; viscoelastic behavior.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Hemp extract (Cannabis sativa L.) [own photography].
Figure 2
Figure 2
Z-Ave and PDI for CBD-cSLN on the 1, 14, and 30 days after the production.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Z-Ave and PDI for CBD-cNLC on the 1, 14, and 30 days after the production.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Rheological behavior of CBD-cSLN (left-hand) and CBD-cNLC (right-hand) over a frequency range of 0–10 Hz.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Differential scanning calorimetric profile of bulk Compritol, depicting a melting peak at 75.8 °C, with an onset temperature of 61.8 °C and end set at 84.4 °C.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Differential scanning calorimetric profile of bulk CBD, depicting a melting peak at 37.5 °C.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Scanning electron microscopy analysis of CBD-loaded cSLN at different resolutions, (a) 1000×, (b) 5000×, (c) 25,000×, and (d) 50,000×.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Scanning electron microscopy analysis of CBD-loaded cNLC at different resolutions, (a) 1000×, (b) 5000×, (c) 25,000×, and (d) 50,000×.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Souto E.B., Baldim I., Oliveira W.P., Rao R., Yadav N., Gama F.M., Mahant S. SLN and NLC for topical, dermal, and transdermal drug delivery. Expert Opin. Drug Deliv. 2020;17:357–377. doi: 10.1080/17425247.2020.1727883. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Mahant S., Rao R., Souto E.B., Nanda S. Analytical tools and evaluation strategies for nanostructured lipid carrier-based topical delivery systems. Expert Opin. Drug Deliv. 2020;17:963–992. doi: 10.1080/17425247.2020.1772750. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Doktorovova S., Kovacevic A.B., Garcia M.L., Souto E.B. Preclinical safety of solid lipid nanoparticles and nanostructured lipid carriers: Current evidence from in vitro and in vivo evaluation. Eur. J. Pharm. Biopharm. 2016;108:235–252. doi: 10.1016/j.ejpb.2016.08.001. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Doktorovova S., Souto E.B., Silva A.M. Nanotoxicology applied to solid lipid nanoparticles and nanostructured lipid carriers—A systematic review of in vitro data. Eur. J. Pharm. Biopharm. 2014;87:1–18. doi: 10.1016/j.ejpb.2014.02.005. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Müller R., Petersen R., Hommoss A., Pardeike J. Nanostructured lipid carriers (NLC) in cosmetic dermal products. Adv. Drug Deliv. Rev. 2007;59:522–530. doi: 10.1016/j.addr.2007.04.012. - DOI - PubMed