Sodium alginate-chitosan nanocomposite as a novel carrier agent for cinnamaldehyde: characterisation and release studies

Abstract

The ultimate aim of this study was to synthesize sodium alginate-chitosan (SA-Chi) nanocomposites for the first time in larvicide formulation. The physicochemical properties of the nanocomposites were characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The feasibility of SA-Chi nanocomposites to encapsulate and load cinnamaldehyde, a common essential oil used against mosquitoes larvae, was evaluated in terms of encapsulation efficiency (EE) and loading capacity (LC). There were three mass ratios of SA-Chi nanocomposites to cinnamaldehyde, namely 50:1,100:1 and 125:1. Research findings suggested that the mass ratio of nanocomposites to drugs, significantly affected the functional groups availability, crystallinity property and thermal stability of nanocomposites. The EE and LC of cinnamaldehyde-loaded nanocomposites at 125:1 were determined as 91.33% and 75.25%, respectively. The release profile data of the nanocomposite were well fitted to Korsmeyer-Peppas kinetic model with correlation coefficient (R²) of 0.9231 for the mass ratio of cinnamaldehyde-loaded nanocomposites at 125:1. The cinnamaldehyde-loaded nanocomposites at 125:1 had prolonged the drug release for 24 hours. Overall, results from this study highlight the potential of SA-Chi nanocomposites as novel nanocarriers to deliver cinnamaldehyde in mosquito larvicide formulations.