Optimization of Nanostructured Lipid Carriers for Essential Oil of Artemisia herba-alba

Artemisia herba-alba, commonly known as white wormwood, is an aromatic plant from the Asteraceae family, widely used in traditional medicine due to its pharmacological activities. Essential oils are unstable and susceptible to changes caused by external factors, which can diminish their efficacy. Encapsulation of essential oils can provide controlled drug release, enhance bioavailability, improve physical stability, and increase efficiency while protecting against degradation and reducing evaporation and toxicity. This ensures an optimal pharmacokinetic profile.  This research aims to optimize the formulation of nanostructured lipid carriers (NLC) loaded with Artemisia herba-alba essential oil and to evaluate their antioxidant activity. The methodology involves optimizing the NLC formulation using Design Expert (Version 13.0.15, Stat-Ease Inc., Minneapolis, U.S.A.) with response surface methodology/Box-Behnken Design, followed by an evaluation of the optimal formula and antioxidant activity using 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging assay. The optimization results indicated a desirability value of 0.632, with a solid to liquid lipid ratio of 71.36:28.64, a surfactant concentration of 1%, and a sonication time of 6.64 minutes. Both the essential oil of Artemisia herba-alba and the essential oil-loaded nanostructured lipid carriers demonstrated antioxidant activity.