Development of phytotherapy products based on curcuminoids as anti-inflammatory agents for veterinary applications

Abstract

In Brazil, as in many countries around the world, the veterinary market is growing every year, as well as the appeal to natural and sustainable products such as phytotherapics. Only 1% of the phytotherapy market in Brazil is focused on the veterinary segment, but the sector grows around 25% a year, surpassing any other. This project fits within this branch, proposing the curcuminoids, actives found in a plant popularly known as açafrão da terra, or Curcuma longa L, as a phytotherapic solution. Açafrão derivatives have several therapeutic properties proven in the scientific literature, and in addition, they have great commercial potential as anti-inflammatory for animals, including pet lines, medium and large sizes.Despite this potential, there is a limitation to be overcome: the solubility of curcumin. This is a determinant factor for its bioavailability when administered orally, because curcuminoids belong to Class II of the Biopharmaceutical Classification System, that is, low solubility and high oral permeability.According to the scientific review, solid dispersion (SD) is a suitable concept to solve the problems of curcumin and other curcuminoids. There are some published works that have succeeded in increasing the solubility of the compound, but the drug loading was very low, limiting its use in pharmaceutical veterinary products. The aim of this work is to develop microparticulate solid dispersions of curcumin in lipid carriers by the spray congealing process, which would avoid the use of inert fillers by being operated at low temperatures (0 to 15 ° C), producing highly charged particles of curcumin.For this purpose, it is proposed in Phase 1 of the PIPE / FAPESP project to investigate the technical feasibility of obtaining microparticles of solid curcumin dispersions with high loading of this active ingredient and the evaluation of: 1) solubility increase, 2) dissolution rate 3) stability, 4) anti-inflammatory activity in vitro; and 5) effective costs of the process. (AU)