Nano Spray Drying as an Innovative Technology for Encapsulating Hydrophilic Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API)

Abstract

The vibrating mesh spray technology implemented in the Nano Spray Dryer B-90 was evaluated for drug delivery applications by spray drying solutions containing different functional polymers to structure the respective encapsulating matrices (Arabic gum, cashew nut gum, sodium alginate, sodium carboxymethyl cellulose and Eudragit RS100) and a specific model drug to be encapsulated (vitamin B12). A systematic study investigated the influence of feeding liquid stream properties such as viscosity, conductivity and surface tension respectively on particle size distribution, specific surface area and morphological aspects. The encapsulating efficiency and the release kinetics of the different systems were evaluated considering in-vitro experiments characterized by different pH conditions that respectively simulate the gastric (acid) and enteric conditions (alkaline). The performance of each formulation was evaluated by considering the intrinsic properties of the materials used and also the spray dryer operating conditions.