Encapsulation of ficus deltoidea extract in nanostructured lipid carrier for anti-melanogenic activity

Abstract

Nanostructured lipid carrier (NLC) was studied as a system to transport Ficus deltoidea extracts through the skin. The thin film ultra-sonication dispersion (TFUD) technique and double-emulsion solvent diffusion (DESD) techniques were performed to compare encapsulation efficiency (EE) of the two methods. The DESD displayed superior performance for encapsulation of F. deltoidea extracts which was 67.92 ± 10.55%. Next, different types of lipids were assessed to determine their effects on the characteristics of F. deltoidea–loaded NLC prepared via the DESD method. Fatty acids were superior to triglycerides for the formulation of NLC. The final NLC formulation selected was stearic acid (SA) as solid lipid and oleic acid (OA) as liquid lipid, at a total ratio of 1:1, and poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) as a stabiliser. The delivery system exerted exceptional transdermal transport properties. F. deltoidea–loaded NLC successfully and more effectively reduced melanin, when compared with non-entrapped F. deltoidea extract.