| Grant number: | 18/26069-0 |
| Support Opportunities: | Regular Research Grants |
| Start date: | July 01, 2019 |
| End date: | December 31, 2021 |
| Field of knowledge: | Engineering - Chemical Engineering - Industrial Operations and Equipment for Chemical Engineering |
| Principal Investigator: | Wanderley Pereira Oliveira |
| Grantee: | Wanderley Pereira Oliveira |
| Host Institution: | Faculdade de Ciências Farmacêuticas de Ribeirão Preto (FCFRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil |
| City of the host institution: | Ribeirão Preto |
| Associated researchers: | André Pitondo da Silva ; Marcia Regina von Zeska Kress ; Mônica Lopes Aguiar |
| Associated scholarship(s): | 19/25981-0 - Encapsulation of essential oils for use in pharmaceutical formulations with antimicrobial activity, BP.TT |
Abstract
Natural compounds have been used in many industrial sectors due to their significant biological properties. In this way, the essential oils have aroused high interest, particularly due to its wide spectrum of proved biological activities, such as antifungal, antibacterial, insecticide, antiviral, antioxidant, among others. The use of essential oils (OEs) as antimicrobial agents has been proposed as an innovative and promising alternative to develop new treatments to overcome microbial resistance. EOs have several active molecules in their composition acting in a synergistic way. This fact, strength the potential of using OEs alone or in association with traditional antibiotics as alternative sources of antimicrobials agents. However, despite the great potential of technological application, OEs present several restrictions, such as chemical complexity, high volatility, susceptibility to degradation and propensity to oxidation, insolubility in aqueous systems, and in general low bioavailability, which difficult to use them directly in more elaborated products. The encapsulation of OEs in micro and nanostructured systems emerges as a powerful strategy to overcome these constraints and, in addition, might positively influence the biological activity of these them, as reported in several studies of literature and from our research group. The process encompasses the inclusion of the active agent in an encapsulating matrix, which may be constituted of carbohydrates, gums, proteins, lipids or other natural or synthetic polymeric materials. These systems can release their contents under specific conditions through a controlled release. In this proposal it will be investigated three different innovative systems for the encapsulation of essential oils, namely, molecular inclusion in cyclodextrins, nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs), and pro-liposomes. Factors such as the composition of EO, of the encapsulation formulation and the production process influence the physicochemical properties of the engineered product, but this information is scarce in the literature, in a systematized way. Studies of the literature have reported the high potential of OEs as antimicrobial agents and the increase of the antimicrobial activity of these compounds caused by the encapsulation processes, resulting in an increased effectiveness. Thus, the study of the effect of the encapsulation processes on the biological activity of EOs used is also an objective of this proposal. Future researches will be conducted with the aim to evaluate synergism effects between the essential oils and antibiotics linked with the encapsulation process as a strategy to combat the resistance of pathogenic microorganisms. (AU)
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