Encapsulation of Curcuma Longa L. Extract: Cytotoxicity Study on Promyelocytic Leukemia (HL-60) Cells

Objective: There are great difficulties in the preparation and use of antitumor and therapeutic drugs. Preparation of highly efficient nano/micro devices to address these difficulties represents one of the new topics in the field of antitumor pharmaceuticals. Methods: Biopolymers such as chitosan and alginate have been shown to be used as an absorption enhancing agent. In this study, the extracts of the turmeric (Curcuma longa L.) plant (TEX) was obtained by the Soxhlet method. Then, TEXs obtained in two different ways were encapsulated with alginate/chitosan. FT-IR, sem-edx and extract analyzes proved that encapsulation occurred and the presence of curcumin and phenolics. Drug loading efficiency (DL) and encapsulation efficiency (EE) of the obtained capsules were examined. EE and DL for TEX microcapsule 1 were 82.40% and 3.21%, respectively, and EE and DL for TEX microcapsule 2 were 88.16% and 4.68%, respectively. Additionally, the anti-proliferative activity and capsule release of the prepared capsules on the promyelocytic leukemia (HL-60) cell line were evaluated. Results: According to the results of this analysis, it was determined that in the first 24 hours, TEX-1 Liposomes released 67.03% of their content into the environment at pH 5.5 and 58.24% of their existing content at pH 7.4. It was determined that TEX-2 liposome suspensions released 73.23% of their content at pH 5.5 and 66.89% of their content at pH 7.4 in the first 24 hours. In addition, the IC50 doses of TEX-1 and its liposomes after 48 hours were 242.3- 126.1µg/mL, respectively; The IC50 levels of TEX-2 and its liposomes were 81.2- 19.3µg/mL, respectively. Conclusion: As a result of the study, it was observed that alginate/chitosan encapsulation strongly inhibited cellular proliferation in the cell line (HL-60).